"In cooperation with parents, Padre Pio Academy prepares young people for college but, most importantly, for life by striving for a thorough formation as Catholics -body, mind, heart, and soul. The Academy strives to develop young Catholics who are rooted in truth and virtue, while inspiring them to seek intellectual, spiritual, aesthetic, and physical excellence in all their various school activities."
The other day I was able to talk with the School Administrator and Founder, Joanne Hanson, who would always be quick to point out that she was not the lone founder. "I was the original person who applied for the 501.c.3 and for the incorporation. I was the president of the board back then but I had a group that co-founded the school with me; I was not all alone."
The school began from a desire by five families to found a school that would provide their children with a traditional Catholic education, firmly rooted in the magisterium-the official teaching authority of the Roman Catholic Church. They also valued the need for smaller classrooms and a more personalized learning approach embedded in a framework of spiritual formation..
So, what made Joanne Hanson and the others start their own school? "I started my kids out in the public school," she stated, "but that didn't last past a year of Kindergarten. Then, I put them in the Catholic School - our local Catholic school. My kids didn't feel like they were fitting in and my youngest one in the school was struggling academically and they were sending him to first grade still not reading, still not sounding anything out. I knew that in a class of 30 kids he probably wouldn't be able to learn."
Not finding the personal attention in the school's larger classes that she and her husband wanted for their children, along with their other concerns, Joanne and her husband chose to home school. They were attending the Latin Mass at the time and met a lot of families who home schooled; it seemed like the answer.
Unfortunately, it still didn't provide the type of education that worked well for their children. In addition, Joanne was bothered by a question one of the teachers asked her when she pulled her kids out. "Joanne, by pulling your kids out, they can't impact anybody."
Like some other families have experienced in home schooling, Joanne found this a daily contest of wills with her children. Rather than learning, the family was being left with conflict at the end of the day.
A priest-friend recommended she consider a small Catholic school that had begun by three parishes in the inner city of Kansas City. The teachers were wonderful and the class size perfect, but the commute was difficult and the children were far removed from their friends and normal way of life.
The same priest listened to Joanne's impassioned comments one day concerning her frustrations with finding the right educational setting and simply said, "Then why don't you just start a school?" The rest, as they say, is history - but one with a lot of hard work!
"I laugh now," Hanson commented, "because I was so naïve. I said, 'Why not? Why can't we start a school - grades K through 12? Yeah, no big deal; we can do this! And we had people that actually believed me - that I could! And it was that naïveté that opened the school. If I had known what I know now, I would have run."
Many of the original board had a strong personal devotion to Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, so he was chosen the school's patron at the time when his cause for beatification was still under consideration.
In June of 1999 Padre Pio Academy was incorporated and the first students began their coursework in September of that year.
Drawing on traditional resources such as the Baltimore Catechism and focusing on the importance of the Mass in Catholic life, Padre Pio Academy boasts a strong and academically rich curriculum set in a Christ-centered atmosphere.
Their greatest disappointment along the way was dropping the high school curriculum, due to the number of students. They hope to pick up again in the near future.
Hanson admits that, in her naïveté, she just assumed that a lot of the home school families in the Latin Mass community would flock to the Academy due to the same frustrations she had felt with home schooling. To her surprise, many were very happy with what they were doing and not interested in private Catholic education.
It also took awhile for the school to gain confidence from other families in the parish as well as the community who didn't understand the need for a different expression of Catholic education from the parochial school.
As the staff and board began to reach out and talk about the school's uniqueness, it grew little by little to become a viable, active and rich environment for learning. They also worked hard to extinguish the idea held by some that they wanted to undermine the work of parochial schools.
When asked what she most enjoyed about being a private Catholic school, Hanson indicated that, for her, there were a number of advantages. First and foremost, they were able to choose their own curriculum as well as select textbooks. The latter has become harder as some newer books seem to be - as Hanson and many educational experts have said - "dumbing down America."
There is a down side to being an independent school -- they get no funding. Like their parochial counterpart, educating a student requires more money than the student's family can normally pay, so outside sources are needed. For Padre Pio, this means full-time fund-raising that involves the board, faculty and the school's families.
"We tell our families," Hanson stated, "when they come on board that you don't have a set amount you have to donate or you have to come with. You do have to recognize that this is not the kind of school where you send your kids and walk away."
The goal at Padre Pio is to have every family involved in the life of the academy, including their fund-raising, which makes the school much stronger in the long run.
Often, when people think of independent or private Catholic schools they think of the situation above or schools founded by individuals with specific agendas. For this reason, the National Association of Private Catholic or Independent Schools (NAPCIS) is present as an organization that accredits schools and teachers who seek to form their students in the Catholic tradition.
NAPCIS gives four important reasons for accreditation on their website
1. Accreditation demonstrates a higher standard of education and competency of operation than what is found in public institutions.
2. Accreditation provides a process of self-evaluation to insure the integrity of the school's purpose and objectives.
3. Accreditation is a declaration of accountability to families and to the public of applied standards of excellence.
4. Accreditation qualifies the school for corporate matching funds and foundation grants.
Padre Pio has already achieved accreditation status with NAPCIS. In addition, they were recognized as a Private School and listed in the Archdiocesan directory in 2009, something many other NAPCIS schools are hoping to accomplish.
The relationship between Hanson and the Superintendent for Catholic Schools for the Archdiocese is very good. Sometimes the superintendent will recommend a student to Padre Pio and, at other times, families will shift their children to a parochial school.
Padre Pio Academy enjoys a very unique relationship in the Archdiocese as it is located in the former building for the parish school at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Shawnee, KS. St. Joseph Catholic School, which began in 1873, built a newer and larger building on the church grounds leaving their former rooms vacant.
This relationship took time to build. At first, the Academy was quite autonomous and the only common area used was the adoration chapel. They didn't want to create waves and didn't want to be a distraction to the parish. Slowly, through weekly attendance at a parish Mass and other activities, they became a part of the larger faith community.
Padre Pio students, through this very unique relationship, are able to participate in organized sports through the parish school, something that cannot be provided by the smaller academy.
The faculty and staff at Padre Pio Academy are aware that they cater to a very special niche in the Catholic community. Families may be drawn to the school for the class size, more personalized learning or the curriculum.
They are also drawn by an approach to education that places Catholic faith, formation and practices as a first priority and academics as second. For example, each day the students begin with the Rosary. The Angelus is said at noon and the Divine Mercy Chaplet is prayed at the end of the day.
The last article I wrote about an independent Catholic school focused on Notre Dame Academy in Middleburg, VA which had jettisoned its Catholic identity in the Fall of 2008. The Board has since renamed the school Middleburg Academy.
While those situations have occurred in various areas around the country, other schools like Padre Pio Academy are giving private Catholic education a new and fresh reputation.
One final thing about the interview with Joanne Hanson needs to be highlighted. If you were to ask her who founded the school, guided it through its formation, directed its decisions and provided its leadership, she would say without hesitation, "the Holy Spirit."
In walking through the journey of Padre Pio Academy's founding, she was clear at every juncture that God was in control of the process as it unfolded.
From the initial stroke of the pen in signing the articles of incorporation through every step in the process and stage in their growth, Joanne Hanson knows and eagerly communicates that the Lord Himself initiated, guided and gave grace to the effort. Many prayers, countless decades of the rosary and hours before the Blessed Sacrament by those involved in the work formed the foundation and future of this private Catholic school in the Kansas City suburbs.
