Inner-city Catholic school has Jewish supporters

Cristo Rey Kansas City, 211 W. Linwood Blvd., may be a Catholic school, but its mission of educating teens from low-income families has inspired some in the Jewish community to help.

“We need people to be involved in the education of our youth,” said Andy Stith, the school’s development director. “We believe we all have this opportunity to help our society.”

Steve Israelite, former executive director of the Jewish Heritage Foundation, heard about the proposed school in 2001, when he was still at JHF.

“I think education is the key, and especially the Jewish people know that. It’s how you move ahead in our society,” said Israelite, who helped school planners get input from the Hispanic community.

Israelite said he is impressed by the college-preparatory curriculum, which requires each student to work in an office once a week and provides guidelines about conduct and dress that allow students to fit into the work environment better.

Businesses such as Tivol’s have provided jobs for Cristo Rey students, although the economy has made it harder to arrange placements for all the students this year.

Because Cristo Rey students come from low-income families, tuition is different than at other private schools. Wages students earn from their office jobs pay for part of their tuition. Families also make a financial contribution, but that can be as low at $10 a month, depending on each family’s financial situation.

Do something
The rest of the money to operate the school comes from fundraising efforts, such as “Dancing with the Kansas City Stars.” The event, a takeoff of televised dancing competitions, involved local personalities and garnered more than $200,000 this year for the school.

Paulette Giarratana, who is Jewish, co-chaired the March fundraiser, just as she’ll chair the 2010 event. One celebrity dancer she recruited this year was Rabbi Mark Levin of Congregation Beth Torah.

Rabbi Levin addressed the ongoing problems of the Kansas City, Mo., School District in a High Holiday sermon last year and proposed that the Jewish community do something to help. Thus, his involvement.

“Cristo Rey manages to get kids who would be in the Kansas City School District to go to college and complete college. Nationally, (they have) a 98 percent graduation rate. That was sufficient information for me to (help),” he said. “I’m not unconscious of the fact that a rabbi helping out a Catholic school would give them a broader appeal.”

Though he won’t be dancing again for Cristo Rey next year, Rabbi Levin said Beth Torah would continue to support education in the inner city by providing food for a class of KCMO students and recruiting volunteers for the YouthFriends organization.

One community
Giarratana first heard about Cristo Rey via a Kansas City Star article about the school’s clothes closet, which provides office-appropriate clothing to students for their work assignments and for the school’s strict dress code.

“I happened to work in retail, in women’s clothing, and I had been looking for a community thing to be involved with,” Giarratana said.

She sorted through clothing donations and helped the Cristo Rey students paint, set up shelves and hang mirrors to make the closet an attractive place. Giarratana also arranged for her employer, Keil & Company, to donate new clothes for the project.

For her, the appeal of Cristo Rey is the educational opportunity it provides for inner-city students.

“We’re all one community here in Kansas City, and I don’t look at it as a Catholic cause or a Jewish cause or any other religious cause,” she said. “One of the main tenets of the Jewish faith is tikkun olam; it’s not just repairing the Jewish world.”

To gain admission to Cristo Rey, students must complete a rigorous admission process and show that they are motivated to work.

Theology is part of the curriculum at Cristo Rey, but only about 60 percent of the student body is Catholic. The rest are Protestants, Buddhists and Muslims, Stith said.

“From a Jewish perspective, education is critical and ... spreading education as far as possible has always been a Jewish mission,” said Arthur Chaykin, Giarratana’s husband and another Cristo Rey volunteer.

The 330-student high school will see its first class of seniors graduate in 2010. The goal, as with other Cristo Rey schools around the country, is have a high graduation rate, with every graduate attending college.

How to help
Cristo Rey Kansas City is looking for businesses to provide work placements for students. To offer a placement or learn more about the program, call Sharon Townsend, (816) 457-6044. The school also offers monthly meet-and-greet lunches, which include student-led tours of the school. The next one will be from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 20. Call Susie Sharkey, (816) 457-6044, for details.

What is Cristo Rey?
Cristo Rey Kansas City (cristoreykc.org) is a member of the Cristo Rey Network, (cristoreynetwork.org.) a national association of high schools modeled after Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago. The Cristo Rey Network, which was founded in 2001, has several schools in cities from LA to New York. Cristo Rey Kansas City is sponsored by the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, Kan.

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