TONTITOWN -- A $3 million gift from an anonymous family will allow qualifying students to attend Northwest Arkansas' only Catholic high school at a major discount.
The donation supports Ozark Catholic Academy's Continuing Catholic Education program, through which students coming from another Catholic school may be eligible for half-price tuition starting next school year.
Tuition for one year is regularly $9,750. Those qualifying for the program will pay $4,875 for a year. They will continue to pay half of the new price if the regular tuition rate increases, said John Rocha, head of school.
"It's to make it easier for students who are going to Catholic school to continue in Catholic education through high school," Rocha said.
Any student in fourth through seventh grade who is enrolled in a Catholic school by the start of the next school year and who remains in Catholic school through eighth grade qualifies for half-price tuition. Ozark Catholic begins with ninth grade.
This year's eighth graders will qualify if they were enrolled in a Catholic school by Feb. 21 and complete this school year there. Current Ozark Catholic students also will get the half-price tuition if they came from a Catholic grade school, Rocha said.
A student doesn't have to be Catholic to attend or to qualify for the half-rate tuition, he said.
The $3 million gift is by far the largest donation the school has received. It will be distributed to the school as needed over a 15-year period, Rocha said.
Suzie Perry's daughter, Abigail, is a ninth grader at Ozark Catholic. Abigail graduated from St. Vincent de Paul School, so she is eligible for the Continuing Catholic Education program.
Perry also has two children in college and another who's a junior at Bentonville High School. The program takes some financial pressure off the family, she said.
"It's a wonderful gift," she said. "It's a great incentive to stay in Catholic school."
St. Joseph Catholic School in Fayetteville is the only other Catholic school that goes through the eighth grade in addition to St. Vincent de Paul. Their tuition rates are about half that of Ozark Catholic's.
Ozark Catholic, in addition to tuition, will charge students an education fee of $1,200 per year starting next school year. The fee will go toward items such as technology and maintaining the school's bus and vans, Rocha said.
The school plans to continue to provide financial aid besides what's offered through its Continuing Catholic Education program. The school puts 20% of its tuition revenue toward financial assistance for students with need, according to its website.
Ozark Catholic opened in 2018 in the Father Bandini Education Center at St. Joseph Catholic Church. It has 46 students in grades nine through 11. Rocha expects enrollment to grow to 70 next school year, when the school will add a 12th grade. His long-term goal is to increase enrollment to 225, which he said might take another eight or nine years.
Isabella Antony of Fayetteville is an eighth grader at St. Joseph Catholic School. She will attend Ozark Catholic next year, said her mother, Susan Antony.
Isabella would enroll there anyway, but getting the half-price tuition rate "definitely helps," Antony said. For people on the fence about enrolling their child at Ozark Catholic, it might be the incentive that pushes them toward the school, she said.
"That is a lot of money for one year, and it's not feasible for all families," she said.
Arkansas has two other Catholic schools for grades nine through 12, both in Little Rock: Mount St. Mary Academy for girls and Catholic High School for boys. Average tuition for the two schools is $6,182 for Catholic students and $7,595 for non-Catholics, according to the Diocese of Little Rock.
Ozark Catholic is an independent Catholic school, meaning it is not affiliated with a particular parish and does not receive financial support from the diocese or any parish.
Metro on 03/16/2020