A $2.7 million capital campaign to help a singular school
meet the challenges of a new century.
When our current school building was dedicated back in 1926, SFA was just one small school among many in our area. Over subsequent decades it evolved into something much more than that, something more akin to an icon: a beacon of Catholic faith and educational quality, a cornerstone of the Highlands community, and one of the most enduring and successful schools its size in Louisville.
Today SFA is still going strong. Making sure it stays that way is the reason the Future School Fund exists. For while the exceptional quality of an SFA education hasn’t changed over the decades, much else has: the costs of educating, the size and prevalence of young families in our area, the competition for top-quality teachers, and — especially — the needs and expectations of parents and students.
This is why the Future School Fund is so needed. For if we want SFA to continue to lead and thrive in the years and decades ahead, it needs more than what made it successful in the last century: more (and more current) facilities to help students reach their maximum potential, more resources to attract top teaching talent, and more funds to help families who want an SFA education for their kids to afford it.
A centennial observance only comes along once in a lifetime. What better time to recommit to St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School — to take stock of the gifts it has given us, and commend it to future generations of learners?
Help us set the foundation for the next 100 years.
Building on
Solid Ground
St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School, as an institution, has been in existence for nearly 150 years. In that time it’s evolved a culture that’s utterly unique, based first and foremost on its close community, but also on its three central pillars of academic excellence, Catholic faith, and service to others.
SFA’s culture is something that everyone in the alumni community has benefitted from and continues to benefit from, and something generations of Highlands residents have come to know and admire.
That culture is still active and thriving. Our near-full enrollment is a testament to what our school achieves year after year — remarkable given the headwinds now facing many parochial schools.
Families come to SFA because they know we deliver academic excellence, no question. But truth be told, academic excellence — if not quite of our caliber — can be found in many places. No, the real secret of SFA is something both different and deeper.
What really drives the culture of SFA is an awareness that a great education is not an end in itself, but is actually for something, and that all who pass through our doors, different as we may be and possessing our own unique gifts, are united in a common purpose of embracing the mission of St. Francis of Assisi, spreading the love of God, and leaving the world a better place than we found it.
“St. Francis’ programs continue to impress me every single year. Whenever I interact with SFA graduates, their sophistication and knowledge come shining through. They are pushed to reach their limits with a gentle and loving hand behind them, and they give me hope for the future generations of this country.”
— Michael Budniak, AP Biology Instructor, Trinity High School
“I feel so incredibly lucky to to have grown up with the St. Francis community, which provided me with friendships, bonds, and skills to last a lifetime. I will carry all of the lessons and life skills that I learned at SFA with me forever.”
— Mimi Peters, SFA Class of 2017
“ I graduated from St. Francis of Assisi and ultimately spent two years teaching in Spain. In fact, during that time, there were seven SFA graduates teaching in different parts of Spain. During college, I always felt that I was one of the best prepared students in the classroom and I know it came from the daily Spanish training I received at SFA.”
— Hannah O. Heine, SFA Class of 2006
Not Your Average Small School
Why does SFA go to all the trouble of maintaining such an exceptional culture? Quite simply because it produces exceptional young men and women. There’s something in an SFA graduate that you recognize when you meet one, a confidence and a strength of character that’s hard to put your finger on. It cannot be quantified.
Other things about our graduates can be quantified, however. Specifically, their levels of achievement. Last year, SFA 8th graders scored an average of 572 on their high school placement tests, which is a full 77 points above the national average, and 61 points higher (11%) than the Louisville Archdiocese average.
Better still, our Northwest Evaluation Association Measures of Academic Performance (NWEA MAP) scores for third, fifth, and 8th graders (grades that are annually tested) were an average of 45% above the national average in reading, and 40% higher in math — placing them in the top 15% of all MAP scores in the US. No wonder then that over 91% of our graduates are on their high school’s honor roll each semester.
It’s a track record of consistent, year-upon-year excellence that few other schools our size can match, and why St. Francis has been twice designated a US Department of Education National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence.
Three Ways to Give
Facility Improvements
In keeping with the 100-year anniversary of our building, we’ve made facility improvement the cornerstone of the Future School Fund. Central to this project is an addition to the northwest corner of the school building which will contain redesigned and expanded science lab and more learning space for early education and learning differences programming.
Teacher Support
Attracting and keeping the faculty it takes to maintain our level of excellence will be one of the most critical challenges facing SFA over the next ten years. Which is why we are creating a Teacher Endowment to help cover resource and professional training costs for teachers.
Student Tuition Support
Each year we work to keep tuition costs as affordable as we can. The reality, however, is that as much as we work to keep tuition low, increasing costs put us out of the reach of many. Our tuition support fund will help keep SFA within the grasp of more aspiring young families.
“Start by doing what's necessary, then do what's possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible."
— The St. Francis of Assisi Please Consider A Gift
There are many different ways to give to this campaign. Within each category of giving there are innumerable ways to be generous to SFA. To find out more about specific types of giving: restricted gifts, unrestricted gifts, estate giving and more, contact the parish office at (502)456-6394 to request more information or set up an appointment. To give right away, simply click the button below. St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School thanks you for your generosity!