65.5 F
San Diego
Monday, Mar 18, 2024
-Advertisement-

About the List Private schools make room for larger enrollments

With education on the minds of parents and politicians, many local private schools look forward to expanding their programs and facilities to meet those needs.

Many parents would choose a private school over a public school due to a variety of reasons, including the quality of education, smaller classrooms or focus on faith-based teachings.

As private schools become more popular, many local schools in the county have begun expanding their facilities and programs to meet the needs of the incoming students.

The San Diego Business Journal’s List of Private Schools ranks the schools by the fall enrollment in 2000. Altogether, the enrollment of the 25 private schools on The List totaled 15,520 students in the fall of 2000, an increase of 2 percent from the previous year.


– Expansion Includes Educational Programs

The Rhoades School, No. 25 on The List, grew 3 percent from its previous year to 298 students in the fall 2000. The nonsectarian, co-educational school offers kindergarten through eighth grade instruction in Encinitas.

The Rhoads School added more educational programs to its curriculum in a temporary building this past winter break to accommodate the growing needs of its students, according to Luann Kittle, director for the school.

The expanded curriculum included a new math lab and a digital music lab for the students. The labs have personal computers, which enhance the students’ learning abilities in both math and music.

“Students nowadays have taken off with the learning process on computers,” Kittle said. “It’s like fish attracted to water.”

The math lab has six computers with real-world applications software and hands-on activities to help students learn math. The math activities allow students to draw architectural renderings, calculations and other studies.

“This math lab program will bring out the future architects and astronomers in our students,” Kittle said.


– Music Created With Software

In the expanded digital music lab, computers are equipped with typing and musical keyboards. Students are able to create their music by typing on both keyboards, Kittle said.

The digital music software uses MIDI applications, or musical instrument digital interface. MIDI data files are small audio files, which are created from multimedia applications on a computer or music synthesizer.

Students are able to create different types of sounds on the keyboard, such as drums, harps or even the piano, she said.

“It’s very motivating to young people and this will stretch their creativity,” she said.

This summer, The Rhoades School plans to construct a four-room, two-story facility to house the new educational labs.

At Santa Fe Christian, No. 6 on The List, the school plans to rebuild its Solana Beach campus.

The projected eight-year project is divided into four phases, which includes a library tech center and science center in phase one; fine arts center, music school and gymnasium in phase two; new junior high school classrooms in phase three; and elementary school classrooms in phase four. The project cost is estimated at $10 million.

The school serves 885 students from kindergarten to 12th grade, according to its fall 2000 enrollment. This is an increase of 2 percent from 865 students in fall 1999 enrollment.


– First Phase To Open This Spring

The first phase’s 15,200-square-foot library tech center is scheduled to be opened this spring. The facility features five computer labs, a distance learning center, multimedia rooms, study areas, research stations and an expanded area for its collection of books and periodicals. The facility is estimated to cost $2.7 million.

“Our desire is to open our curriculum to home-schoolers and missionaries around the world,” said Jim Hopson, headmaster of the school. “We’re at full capacity right now and we’ll need additional room to meet the increase of incoming students.”

Another private school in the county that expanded their infrastructure included School of the Madeleine, No. 11 on The List, with its completion of the 8,000-square-foot Monsignor John Dickie Library set for March 2000. The library expands the number of periodicals, reading materials and Macintosh computer stations, which are connected to the Internet.

-Advertisement-

Featured Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-

Related Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-