Minnesota’s Catholic schools are thriving with the help of a nonprofit

Catholic education is in the midst of a transformation at schools across Minnesota.

Enrollment is up, and literacy is, too. Principals are pointing to the vital assistance of a nonprofit group: Catholic Schools Center of Excellence (CSCOE) in Edina.

Launched 10 years ago to assist struggling schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, CSCOE’s reach now extends to every Catholic school in the state, with more than 100 grants issued per year and academic and training expertise offered free of charge.

Best of all, principals say, the group listens: “It took schools that were surviving and took us to a place where we’re dreaming,” said principal Adam Groebner of St. Therese Catholic School in Deephaven.

“They gave us momentum.”

At Ascension Catholic School in north Minneapolis, summer school students set out last week to break down algebra equations and revisit a children’s book with an underlying theme of the Black Panther Party.

These were kids about to enter fourth grade, and it was a “hard book,” teacher Peggy White said. But the students seemed ready to take on the challenge, having benefited from so-called “science of reading” techniques — skills built with the help of CSCOE.

Catholic Schools Center of Excellence got its start in 2015 via a $15 million, three-year grant from the family foundation started by Richard Schulze, founder of electronics retailer Best Buy.

At the time, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis was emerging from bankruptcy, and Schulze, sensing its schools needed support, launched the project with the intention of boosting enrollment by improving technology, teacher training and information sharing.

A year earlier, CSCOE leaders had visited each of the Twin Cities archdiocese’s 80 schools serving pre-K through eighth grade and compiled enrollment numbers totaling 20,004 students. This spring, the count stood at 22,694, a 13.5% increase, the center reported last week.

The rise came at a time when enrollment in Catholic schools nationwide dropped by more than 10%.

Schulze’s family foundation later committed another $10 million to expand the project to each of the state’s 153 Catholic schools for kids in pre-K through eighth grade — with $6 million in grants being issued in 2023-24 to strengthen literacy and social-emotional learning, plus other aims.

At the ground level, Tricia Menzhuber, principal of St. John Paul II Catholic School in northeast Minneapolis, said of CSCOE: “They have just flipped Catholic education ... It’s transformed my school.”

This year, Menzhuber was among many private school leaders to testify at the State Capitol against Gov. Tim Walz’s proposed elimination of $109 million in nonpublic pupil aid. In a recent interview, she blitzed through CSCOE’S contributions to St. John Paul II’s success:

There was funding to help launch a preschool; a trip to a conference to learn about attracting and serving Latino students; calls to CSCOE’s marketing and admissions trainers asking: “How can I get more traffic to my website?”

And she has school-branded water bottles and backpacks to distribute when she puts “boots on the ground” at community parades and church festivals.

In 2018-19, when Menzhuber took over as principal, St. John Paul II had 118 kids in grades K-8. This fall, she’ll open with 208 students, plus another 20 in preschool. She’ll add a second preschool classroom when she can find the space.

“And we haven’t even talked about academic excellence,” she said. “Reading is its own story.”

Seven years ago, CSCOE teamed with Groves Learning Organization in St. Louis Park to begin offering schools a three-year literacy program called Believe and Read. Teachers are trained in phonics-based instruction — an approach now adopted for the state’s public schools with passage of Minnesota’s Read Act in 2023.

Cotter Schools in Winona, a Catholic institution, embarked on the program in 2024-25, said Mary Eileen Fitch, the schools’ president, who describes it as “wildly successful.” A significant number of kindergartners, for example, hit year-end reading goals in mid-winter tests, she said.

Fitch also is part of a three-person team at Cotter learning fundraising skills in a CSCOE program offered in partnership with St. Mary’s University.

At St. Therese in Deephaven, Groebner, the principal, said Believe and Read helped students achieve high levels of literacy even while learning remotely during the pandemic. He’s used CSCOE grants to send teachers on faith-deepening pilgrimages to Rome and accepted its offer to replicate a canoe-building exercise being implemented elsewhere at the middle school level.

“Everything you do, you can decide: Is this the best fit for my community?” Groebner said. “They bring ideas to the table, but also are open to our ideas.”

Pete Stoddart, vice president of advancement at CSCOE, said the nonprofit sees itself entering a new chapter at the 10-year mark, “and there is no room for complacency.” It was only three years ago, he said, when it took its work statewide, and it’s sure there are other great principals and school leaders to work with.

CSCOE introduces programs and provides support with coaching, “but the magic happens with leaders who grab and go and bring them to their fullest potential,” Stoddart said. “There is no give-up in any of this.”