Lihu'e school takes loss in gamble

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau

LIHU'E, Kaua'i — A Catholic high school in Manoa will take a $500,000 loss on its four-year experiment with starting a school in Lihu'e.

Sister Joan of Arc, a member of the Sisters of St. Francis and principal of St. Francis School in Manoa, said the Kaua'i St. Francis School could not attract enough enrollment to break even.

The board of directors met in June and decided to close the institution because of the potential of continuing losses that would threaten the parent school.

"We did not make the decision lightly," she said.

Suggestions by parents that it had been close to breaking even this year were mistaken, she said.

"The school came in $95,000 short last year, and this year it looks like $120,000," she said.

For the coming year, the school would have needed 90 students, and by late May there were only 74 enrolled, she said.

Kaua'i was the only county without a Catholic high school when St. Francis responded to invitations to open one. It was on the grounds of the old Immaculate Conception School near the Lihu'e Neighborhood Center.

It has been the least expensive private high school on the island, with tuition of $4,400 for grades 9 to 12 and $3,400 for grades 7 and 8. If it had stayed open, the sixth grade would have been added this year, Sister Joan said.

Parents said they have been looking for a sponsor to help get a Catholic high school back on the island within the next two years.