It is no coincidence that muralist Brother Mark Edler chose to make his “St. Vincent’s Orchard” mural bright and lively. Just as the image gives light to the street, DePaul Catholic School – and its faculty, which includes a dozen University of Scranton graduates – is doing the same for its Germantown neighborhood.
From the Commons to the CLassroom Graduates Bring a Part of Scranton to Germantown Catholic School
The ParaLLeLs BetWeen GermantoWn’s DePaUL CathoLiC SChooL and the 40-Foot mUraL – titLed “St. VinCent’s OrChard,” reCentLY ComPLeted on the sChooL’s FaCade – rUn thiCKer than a FeW Coats oF Paint. In their own ways, the school and the mural are giving light to an area in desperate need. In 2003, DePaul, then known as St. Martin DePorres, was in peril. At that time, the school’s enrollment had dwindled to nearly 180 students – a dangerously low number, according to Vice Principal Steve Janczewski. If the K-8 school closed, it would leave its Northwest Philadelphia neighborhood – an area rich in historic sites, but since overcome with urban strife – with no Catholic schools. Through what Janczewski calls “counter-initiative” measures, DePaul didn’t cut budgets but rather lowered class sizes, hired additional faculty, and added programs, such as Spanish, art and computer science. Nearly a decade later, the decision to make a DePaul education distinctive seems to be an A-plus. DePaul opens the 2012-13 school year with 320 students, 30 faculty members 20
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and 18 homerooms, nearly double previous years’ totals. “That’s a very visible sign that this isn’t a school that’s dying, it’s a school that’s growing,” says Janczewski. Just as muralist Brother Mark Edler, a professor at DePaul University in Chicago, brightened the Catholic school’s exterior, “interjecting life and light into the neighborhood,” DePaul has done the same for the Philadelphia suburb. For any school, success begins in the classroom. The mural is a metaphor for the life flourishing inside the building’s walls. This success is largely attributed to the school’s faculty, which has a distinctive University of Scranton lean. How distinctive? Of the school’s 30 faculty members, 12 are Scranton graduates, including two from the class of 2012. In recent years, DePaul has employed nearly 20 Scranton alumni, Janczewski explains, adding, “They have played a big role in our success as a school.”