GREATER SPRINGFIELD – It’s been an auspicious start for the new Pope Francis High School, as Director of Admissions Ann Rivers recently announced the school exceeded the enrollment goal for its inaugural year.

The new Catholic high school, which was created through the physical merging of the former Holyoke Catholic High School and Cathedral High School at the end of classes this past June, welcomed 365 students for the 2016-2017 school year that began on Sept. 6. That enrollment included 68 freshmen, 15 transfer students and 12 new international students. Freshmen enrollment exceeded a projected 65 students; the total enrollment also surpassed the school’s goal of 361 students. This year’s student total includes 171 returning sophomores, juniors and seniors from Holyoke Catholic and 107 returning students from Cathedral.  

The current capacity for Pope Francis, which is housed in the former Holyoke Catholic building on Springfield Street in Chicopee, is 400 students.

“We had a positive response for admission [for this school year],” Rivers said, adding that Head of School Thomas Y. McDowell felt the addition of satellite bus transportation from outlying communities such as Belchertown, Easthampton, Amherst and Feeding Hills made it easier for parents to consider enrolling their children at Pope Francis. Bus transportation to the school is now available to students from a total of 13 local cities and towns. The school also has students enrolled from six Connecticut communities, including Enfield, Simsbury and Windsor Locks, as well as a total of 38 international students from China, Vietnam and the Czech Republic.

Rivers said this year’s enrollment trend – coupled with the recently announced Sept. 18 groundbreaking for the Surrey Road facility – has her optimistic about continued interest in the school.

“Now that the majority of questions about the merger have been answered and we’ve set the date for the groundbreaking at our future site, we are focusing on fulfilling our mission of challenging our students to grow spiritually, intellectually, socially and physically,” she said. “We encourage anyone interested in learning more about the benefits of a Pope Francis High School education to visit our new website, popefrancishigh.org.”

Last year Holyoke Catholic High School had a total of 243 students and Cathedral had a total of 165 students enrolled in all four grades. Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski initially announced plans to merge Holyoke Catholic with Cathedral, which had been operating out of a temporary home in the former Memorial School in Wilbraham since the June 1, 2011 tornado destroyed the Surrey Road school, in the spring of 2015.