Photos by Emma Cassani
A Second Chance in Price Hill Resurrection School Becomes Romero Academy at Resurrection BY P AT RIC IA M C G E E V E R
This school year is anything but normal for students across the archdiocese. Masks are part of the new uniform and kids are forced to keep their distance from each other. For the students who attend one parish school in Price Hill, the changes are even greater. Their school has a new look, new teachers, new curriculum and a new name: Romero Academy at Resurrection. “My favorite part of our opening week was talking to the students who had previously been at Resurrection and asking them how they liked the changes,” said Principal Tom Loughead. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive. The school at Resurrection parish had been losing money for years, enrollment was down and it was at risk of closing. Then, something happened to save it. “Seton Education Partners appeared,” said Mabe Rodriguez, executive director of Cincinnati Inner-City Schools Education (CISE). CISE provides funding to Catholic 8 | TH E C ATHOLIC TE LEG R A PH
schools in economically challenged areas of the archdiocese. “Seton said, ‘We want to partner with you, with the school.’ To me, this was divine intervention. This was the Holy Spirit.” Seton Education Partners already had its blended learning model in four schools in the archdiocese. The plan for Resurrection was a bit different. A team of eight people traveled to New York City to see how a similar model worked in schools there. It took more than a year to work out the details. In the end, Romero Academy was created as an independent nonprofit that manages the school on behalf of the parish. “I gathered the data, and I found out that there are 4,700 kids who we call ‘voucher-eligible,’ meaning living in poverty, in Price Hill,” said Rodriguez. “I thought to myself, we can’t close this school. It’s the last place we should close a school. We need to give these kids a chance.” Archbishop Dennis Schnurr agreed. “I am very grateful
