Giving up that much acreage means the school won't be able to hold any more fund-raising carnivals on campus. But it won't need to do that anymore, because of money given to the school and the new gymnasium by the senior center's developers in exchange for the land.

The senior project will house its first residents in January 2005. Before that happens, the school plans to renovate its cafeteria and repaint some of its buildings, said Carola Souza, school principal.

Now that much of the dirty digging work is nearly completed and the air conditioning has been installed in the classrooms, Souza plans to expand the enrollment, which dropped during the construction. Souza said enrollment is 240, and she wants to see that increase to about 300.

"Because of the development, we now have the resources to grow," Souza said. "It was a tradeoff, but now we have the resources to upgrade the school."

Everyone knows one another at the school, Souza said, and the changes won't alter that. Many of the students are the children of former students, she said.

"Parents say they have a warm feeling when they come on campus," Souza said.

• What are you most proud of? "That we try to meet the needs of the whole child, spiritually and academically."

• Best-kept secret? "Our low student-teacher ratio," Souza said. "We have one teacher to 16 students, and we can still offer all the extras like music, computer, art and physical education with separate teachers."

• Everybody at our school knows: The principal, Carola Souza. "She is responsible for guiding the school community through the challenging construction project on campus and arranged for all classrooms to be air-conditioned. She has worked closely with our Parent Teacher Guild to purchase state-of-the-art online computers for all 16 homerooms," said Charlene Williams, vice principal.

• Our biggest challenge: Money is always an issue, Souza said. "And getting our story out. We don't tell it well that we're here. A lot of people don't know about us."

• What we need: To build enrollment. "We have an excellent staff and faculty that could handle more children," said Souza.

• Special events: An annual Christmas concert that involves the whole school, twice-yearly piano recitals, May Day, Jump Rope for Heart, MS Readathon and Catholic Schools week activities that include parent-student lunches, community leaders reading to lower grades and a community service activity.

Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com or 395-8831.