Catholic education is experiencing a rebirth in Marion that bodes well for the future of St. Mary School.
In the past two years, St. Mary has reversed decades of dwindling enrollment numbers, going from about 90 students to more than 120 in kindergarten through eighth grade.
And, by all accounts, the trend is likely to continue.
“The Gospel teaches us both that the greatest treasures are hidden, and that we are not to hide our light under a bushel,” said Father Thomas Buffer, the pastor at St. Mary Church, where the parish’s first school was established in 1875.
“More and more, our community is discovering the treasure that is St. Mary School, where the light of Christ illuminates the hearts and minds of our children.”
The increase in students at the K-8 school is welcome news in an area impacted in recent years by population shifts and the cyclical nature of manufacturing and the economy. Enrollment declines led to the closing in 2013 of Marion Catholic High School, leaving St. Mary as the only Catholic school in Marion County.
Located in one of the diocese’s northernmost counties, St. Mary attracts students from within and outside the city of 35,000 people located directly north of Columbus about 45 minutes from downtown.
With a large immigrant population working and settling in the area, 50% of the school’s student body either speaks mostly Spanish or lives in a family where it’s the primary language in the home.
“And so that has brought some requirements for us to change what we do here because we serve a lot of immigrant families and a lot of Spanish speakers,” said Jared Tedrick, the school’s principal.
“Most of our staff does not speak Spanish, but we have a bilingual staff member and an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher who is here full time. We have two bilingual priests, and we have a Hispanic outreach coordinator who is able to speak Spanish and English fluently. So, we have many resources for those families.
“And the students do a wonderful job helping each other. A lot of our bilingual students will translate for each other or for the teacher and their parents.”
Marion St. Mary principal Jared Tedrick helps first-grader Creek Manley with a STEM project. CT photos by Ken Snow
The school’s growth coincides with the arrival of Tedrick as principal. Tedrick taught English and journalism at Columbus Bishop Watterson High School before moving to Marion at the start of the 2020-21 academic year.
This year’s kindergarten class with 22 students might be most reflective of the growth at the school. Half of those children are Spanish speakers.
“Having spoken to many parents in their homes, they say the same thing, that they are here to work for a better life for their children, and they’re excited for their children to live here, take on the culture, learn English and have a future here,” Tedrick said.
“And that’s not just from Hispanic families. Along with the increase in enrollment, what we see in this community is a desire, a hunger for faith and morals to be incorporated in the educational environment of the school. That’s not something they can find in public schools.”
Some of the enrollment gains can be traced not only to the desire for a faith-based education but also to the procedures and policies that Catholic schools followed coming out of the pandemic in 2020 when they emphasized returning to the physical classroom.
“We have seen a population of students that has really struggled academically post pandemic because of that lost instructional time and lost social-emotional development being at home,” Tedrick said. “And so, in many ways, we’re still reckoning with that.
“We also have an extra challenge, which is providing instruction to many students who speak Spanish as their primary or only language.
“We’re facing those challenges like any other school, but we believe that with the increased engagement that these students see, with their increased time in the school with great instruction, and with the different priorities that we have for discipline, respect, responsibility and solid moral, traditional teaching that our students are better equipped to make progress than they would be elsewhere.”
St. Mary has also made some staff and leadership changes that brought a new energy to the school.
“What we’ve tried to do is become more visible, to connect more with the community and to bring more programming and activities here for the students,” Tedrick said. “So, this is not just a place you stay until 2:15 when school is out.”
The after-school program, led by Stephanie Spears, provides homework assistance that’s beneficial particularly to children who are learning English, snacks, physical education, playtime with friends and various craft and technology projects.
In addition to providing a robust after-school program, the staff is reaching out to help families outside the school walls with home visits. Some families live as far as 40 minutes away and rely on buses to take their children to and from school.
“Many of our families deal with transportation concerns, and many are working all the time and not able to visit the school,” Tedrick explained. “So, whatever we can do to bring the school to them is going to assist with that home-school connection. And so, we worked hard last year to get out into the communities.
“Many times the teacher will take a translator because many of these families are Hispanic, but not all, and so we go into the house and sometimes we’ve had dinner, we talk about the mission of the school, the faith life of the school, good homework habits for the students, goals for the future, what they want their children to be as they get older, and we try to build that relationship that pays dividends in the classroom and in the future.”
Kindergarten teacher Raeanna Garber is one of the teachers who makes those visits along with Irene Tron, the school’s ESL instructor.
“I usually take my things with me like report card information and how they’re doing at school,” Garber said. “We don’t have to meet at school. So that way the parents feel welcome in the school environment even though sometimes they can’t get to our school.
“It makes them feel important and part of our school because they can’t always come in for parent-teacher conferences because of work issues or transportation issues.
“It’s really nice just to go and meet with them for a half hour and talk about their kids, and the kids really enjoy it, too. They remember that kind of thing.
“It’s not that common in schools, but it makes the relationship grow, and so then in school they like respect you a little bit more, they remember that. A lot of my kids bring it up to me. ‘You came to my house the other day.’ So, it means a lot to them.”
The outreach efforts additionally include taking children to update their vaccines or to doctor visits, helping families secure furniture or heaters for their homes and connecting to the parish and organizations such as the local St. Vincent de Paul Center.
“I find that especially with the language divide in the parish, it’s sometimes difficult for parishioners and the organizations that are in the best position to help to ascertain what the needs are and then to fulfill those needs,” Tedrick said.
“And so, what we can do is because we have such good relationships with the children and the parents and we are in the homes frequently, we’re able to facilitate and reinvigorate the outreach arms of the parish.”
It’s beneficial that both priests at St. Mary Church, Father Buffer and Father Seth Keller, the parochial vicar, speak Spanish. Both are also actively engaged with the children, who attend Mass once a week on Fridays, and students in upper grades go to Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament weekly. The parish offers a regular Sunday Mass in Spanish.
“We have a buddy system so that at Mass the fourth-graders come down and sit with our kindergartners, and that’s really nice because they can whisper to them and help them understand what’s going on,” Garber said.
“And our priests are really, really good with our kids. They see them quite often in school, which most schools just don’t have the opportunity to have that because the priests are busy. Just being able to speak to most of them and having interactions with them and talking to them about certain things in Spanish – a lot of the students appreciate that.”
Garber is in her second year of teaching at St. Mary after graduating from Sycamore Mohawk High School, about 30 miles north of Marion, and Heidelberg University.
Successfully teaching and managing 22 kindergartners is a challenge that’s compounded by two languages being spoken in the classroom, “but we have a lot of resources (including an aide and parent volunteers) to help them, and for the most part the kids easily understand what I’m saying,” Garber said.
“I have a lot of students who are also bilingual, and so they help each other. It seems like the kids are really getting adjusted, and I make sure that we have high expectations for all of them.
“We’re all here for the same reason – to learn and grow in our faith. To learn in this environment and have this Catholic education, that’s all that matters, and that’s what their parents want.”
Garber is also involved in another new extracurricular program at the school, which is bringing back sports with the addition of indoor soccer this month. She will be one of the coaches for five teams from the school that will play in a community league comprising churches in the area.
Many of the coaches will provide transportation for students who lack the means to get to and from practices and games.
“Almost half the school is playing,” Tedrick said. “We have seen a tremendous amount of excitement from the students and from the families, and we’re excited to bring back programs that promote the growth of the whole child, not just the academic side of things, because that’s really what we’re trying to provide.
“There’s a lot of reasons for optimism here, especially for enrollment and growth of the school. The last couple of years have demonstrated that there is an increased appetite for Catholic education, especially in communities like Marion. We’re excited for the future.”