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News & Features

Extra Mile schools to reorganize, expand
archived from: 2010-03-15
by: Robert P. Lockwood

For more than 20 years now, four inner-city Catholic schools, through the support of the Extra Mile Education Foundation, have been able to provide a quality, value-centered education to nearly 650 students annually.

To maintain Catholic education in the inner-city that is affordable and accessible to as many families as possible the Diocese of Pittsburgh and St. Charles Lwanga, St. James, St. Benedict the Moor and St. Paul Cathedral parishes, in collaboration with the Extra Mile Education Foundation, have announced a long-range plan to reorganize the four school programs into two educational sites.

At the same time, the Extra Mile scholarship program that now helps nearly 120 students at two additional Catholic schools will be expanded to several other schools in the diocese.

The four Extra Mile schools are Holy Rosary in Pittsburgh’s Homewood neighborhood, St. Benedict the Moor in the city’s Hill District, St. James in Wilkinsburg and St. Agnes in the lower Hill District, as well as the Scholars Program in place at Good Shepherd in Braddock and the Cardinal Wright Regional School on Pittsburgh’s North Side.

The diocese, Extra Mile and the four city parishes involved are forming one educational site in Pittsburgh’s East End, effective for the 2010-2011 school year. Preliminary discussions are under way with the goal to create one educational site in the Hill District, but not before the 2011-2012 school year. The goal of this long-range plan is to strengthen the viability of Catholic education in the region.

Details of the plan are in the process of being discussed and finalized with the parishes and school leadership, faculties and staffs, and the parents of each of the four schools over the next several months.

The four schools have faced familiar challenges, including a substantial decline in the number of school-age children residing in Pittsburgh. This has led to enrollment declines in the current four school buildings, less efficient use of space, rising per-pupil costs and increasing tuition for families.

The consolidation of its four sites into two will allow a number of improvements, including the reduction and stabilization of tuition costs for parents, expansion and improvement of the physical plants, and an improved educational program that focuses on core disciplines and allows for enhanced curricular and extracurricular initiatives. The plan also calls for creation of a larger pool of scholarship funds to be awarded to families each year. This expansion will allow more African-American students in other communities to be included in the Scholars Program.

Extra Mile and the diocese believe this strategic plan will lead to a more vibrant educational program that will include more students than are currently being served and strengthen the collective abilities to support this effort financially for many years.

The foundation has worked in partnership with the diocese in providing substantial financial support to inner-city Catholic schools that educate annually about 650 students who are primarily African-American and non-Catholic.

In addition, the foundation provides scholarship funds to nearly 120 non-Catholic African-American students through its Scholars Program.

Over the past 20 years, Extra Mile has provided more than $30 million in operational and capital subsidies to these schools and their students. All of this has been possible only with the generous support of a number of businesses, corporations, foundations and private donors.

The foundation has established a nationally recognized model for addressing the challenges of urban education.

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