Read more: http://www.journaltimes.com/news/local/article_2838047c-d945-11e0-81f9-001cc4c002e0.html#ixzz1Y2KrmAA2A school in the Catholic tradition
Racine's new St. John Fisher Academy high school is "a school in the Catholic tradition" instead of "a Catholic school" because the Milwaukee Archdiocese has not approved the school. Instead the archdiocese rejected the school's proposal, in part because archdiocesan officials felt the school could take students away from existing area Catholic high schools.
Without approval, the archdiocese says St. John Fisher is not supposed to hold Mass, offer sacraments or teach Catholic theology. There would be no immediate repercussions for doing those things, but St. John Fisher officials said they are respecting the archdiocese's rules while they work toward approval. They have a meeting with archdiocese officials Sept. 23.
In the meantime the school is holding prayer time instead of Mass and teaching theology in the Catholic tradition instead of Catholic theology.
St. John Fisher has 52 students enrolled in ninth through 11th grades; organizers plan to add 12th grade next year. Of those now enrolled, only one is paying the school's $5,500 annual tuition. The others receive new state-funded school choice vouchers, Tomasiewicz said.
About 20 of the students come from the Milwaukee area and are bused together to the school from a pick-up site on Milwaukee's south side, Lundin said. The school's about 30 other students, like freshman Elicia Ocasio, are from the Racine area.
I'm kind of growing fond of the idea of home schooling until high school and then sending kids to an academy like this. It's nice to have that elementary option but it kind of encourages home schooling in the sense that it's not a K-12 program. If dioceses aren't yet, they had better get used to this. With respect to the current landscape of Catholic institutions in this state, being an independent Catholic school is seen as a good thing by many of us.