The San Jose Catholic Diocese purchased about 20 acres of land
in southeast Morgan Hill to build a Catholic high school.
The San Jose Catholic Diocese purchased about 20 acres of land in southeast Morgan Hill to build a Catholic high school.
The land, located on the northeastern corner of Tennant and Murphy avenues, was purchased late last year for an undisclosed amount of money. It is currently zoned for agricultural uses, but the Diocese hopes to annex the property into the city and have it rezoned for the school, according to Chief Financial Officer Bob Serventi.
“We’re currently attempting to raise funds, and we’re in a quiet phase for construction costs,” Serventi said. “It’s going to take some time. At some point and time the committee that’s working on that will work on the city of Morgan Hill for the environmental reports that the city’s going to require.”
Serventi said having a regional Catholic school would benefit the whole area.
As it stands, the closest Catholic high school is in downtown San Jose. There are also Catholic high schools in Watsonville and Salinas, Serventi said.
“There are people who would come, for sure,” Serventi said.
Fabienne Esparza, principal of Saint Catherine’s School in Morgan Hill, which has about 300 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, said having a close private high school education available to students would be great.
“All the other Catholic high schools are fabulous, but it’s a long commute.”
Esparza said enrollment has been steady and they are very close to maximum capacity for the campus on Peak Avenue. There are waiting lists for some grades.
While private high school officials rejoiced at the news, Morgan Hill Unified School District Board President Don Moody acknowledged that a private high school could leech students – and therefore state and federal dollars – from the district.
“I appreciate that it’s another option for our families,” Moody said. “I think they feel that the public schools are not necessarily meeting the needs of all the students. They’re there to provide another option locally.”
Moody said having a local Christian private high school will give families another option to sending their children to San Jose’s Valley Christian High School or Bellarmine College Preparatory.
“I understand all that,” Moody said. “If you want your student to benefit from a parochial education and don’t want to drive all the way to Santa Clara.”
That said, Moody said he expected the district would try to find ways to “remain competitive, and offer things that will appeal to students and families of Morgan Hill.”
“There are a lot of programs that a public school offers that help keep kids in school,” he said. “Not necessarily advanced placement classes, although we offer a goodly number of those. But other programs – athletic programs, music programs. Those are the ones scrutinized (during tight budget times), but those are the things that you can get in public school. You wouldn’t get all of those options, necessarily, at a private school.”
