Low enrollment A Catholic high school that opened on Kauai four years ago was closed this week because enrollment was insufficient to meet financial obligations.
closes Kauai
Catholic school
St. Francis School had 82
students enrolled for
the fall semesterBy Mary Adamski
madamski@starbulletin.comThe Franciscan sisters who operate St. Francis School on Oahu notified Honolulu Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo Monday that they will close the Kauai St. Francis campus immediately.
"It was with deep regret that we have had to come to this decision," said Sister Marion Kikukawa, general minister of the Sisters of the Third Franciscan Order of Syracuse, N.Y., in a release.
The decision came at a Saturday meeting of the schools' executive committee at which the leaders determined that the 82 students enrolled for the fall semester would fail to sustain a balanced budget. The budget called for the Kauai operation to begin repaying the $450,000 subsidy it had received from the Manoa school.
Faculty, staff and parents struggled to increase enrollment and strengthen finances. The board last month revised its projected 120-student enrollment requirement to allow for $30,000 in fund-raisers if a 90-student minimum enrollment was reached by June 30.
The religious order, which also founded St. Francis Medical Center, undertook the establishment of a co-educational middle and high school on Kauai, which has Catholic elementary schools but is the only major island without a Catholic high school. The school was opened in 1997 in facilities rented from Immaculate Conception Church in Lihue. There have been 14 graduates.
"The Manoa campus has subsidized the Kauai campus for the last four years and can no longer commit to this support," said the announcement by Kikukawa. "We responded to the dreams of the people of Kauai and faced significant obstacles for the past four years."