Holy Family Catholic Schools (HFCS) is a Roman Catholic

Roman Catholic Church

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

 school system based in Dubuque

Dubuque, Iowa

Dubuque is a city in and the county seat of Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, located along the Mississippi River. In 2010 its population was 57,637, making it the ninth-largest city in the state and the county's population was 93,653....

, Iowa

Iowa

Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...

 (USA

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

). Holy Family, which operates schools in eastern Dubuque County, is a part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dubuque

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dubuque

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dubuque is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the northeastern quarter of the state of Iowa in the United States. It includes all the Iowa counties north of Polk, Jasper, Poweshiek, Iowa, Johnson, Cedar, and Clinton counties. ...

. As of the 2007-2008 school year, HCFS has 1,859 students enrolled in its schools (excluding preschool).

General information

HFCS currently operates:

• 4 elementary schools
  Primary education
  A primary school is an institution in which children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as primary or elementary education. Primary school is the preferred term in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth Nations, and in most publications of the United Nations Educational,...
  
  
• 1 middle school
  Middle school
  Middle School and Junior High School are levels of schooling between elementary and high schools. Most school systems use one term or the other, not both. The terms are not interchangeable...
  
  
• 1 high school
  High school
  High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
  
  
• 7 early childhood centers
  Early childhood education
  Early childhood education is the formal teaching and care of young children by people other than their family or in settings outside of the home. 'Early childhood' is usually defined as before the age of normal schooling - five years in most nations, though the U.S...
  
  

Enrollment

In the 2006-2007 school year, there were 1,954 students attending Holy Family Catholic Schools. Of those, 1,874 (95.9%) were White

White American

White Americans are people of the United States who are considered or consider themselves White. The United States Census Bureau defines White people as those "having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa...

, 21 (1.1%) were Black

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

, 31 (1.6%) were Asian

Asian American

Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...

, and 4 (.2%) were American Indian

Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

. 24 (1.2%) students were Hispanic, and may be of any race. Additionally, 995 (50.9%) were male

Male

Male refers to the biological sex of an organism, or part of an organism, which produces small mobile gametes, called spermatozoa. Each spermatozoon can fuse with a larger female gamete or ovum, in the process of fertilization...

, and 959 (49.1%) were female

Female

Female is the sex of an organism, or a part of an organism, which produces non-mobile ova .- Defining characteristics :The ova are defined as the larger gametes in a heterogamous reproduction system, while the smaller, usually motile gamete, the spermatozoon, is produced by the male...

.

Controversy

The closing of elementary schools in Dubuque has generated a significant amount of controversy and anguish since Holy Family's formation. In the less than 10 years that Dubuque's Catholic schools have been led by the Holy Family School Board, 5 elementary schools in 7 buildings have closed. They were: Holy Trinity, Nativity, Sacred Heart, St. Joseph Key West, St. Joseph The Worker, St. Mary's, and St. Patrick's. This has been particularly hard on Dubuque's Downtown, North End, and Midtown neighborhoods, where all of the schools were located. The northern portion of Dubuque, which had 5 elementary buildings operating as recently as 2002, now has only one: Holy Ghost.

This has taken a great toll on parish identity in Dubuque. Many parishes operated their own, independent schools for decades (over 100 years in some cases). The Holy Family School Board, on the other hand, has greatly pushed efforts toward consolidation and centralization of operations.

In closing 5 schools, and with smaller enrollment at the remaining schools, Holy Family laid off a number of teachers and other staff in its first years. That trend has changed in the last few years.

HCFS has also implemented several controversial tuition hikes, which partially contributed to the loss in enrollment. Holy Family contends that the revenue is needed to continue to keep the schools operating.

Recent developments

• In 2005, Nativity Elementary School was closed and the buildings subsequently functioned as a temporary middle school. This lasted only one year, as the students moved to Mazzuchelli Middle School in 2006.
• In August 2006, Mazzuchelli Middle School
  Mazzuchelli Middle School
  Mazzuchelli Middle School is a three-year Roman Catholic middle school located in Dubuque, Iowa. It is the only middle school in the Holy Family Catholic School system, and enrolls 417 students in grades 6-8. Mazzuchelli is named in honor of Father Samuel Mazzuchelli, OP, a Catholic pioneer and...
  
   opened on the campus of Wahlert High School
  Wahlert High School
  Wahlert Catholic High School is a private, co-educational, Roman Catholic high school in the city of Dubuque, Iowa. It is one of four high schools in Dubuque, the others being Central Alternative High School, Hempstead High School and Dubuque Senior High School. Wahlert is the central Catholic high...
  
  . The facility is unique in that it is the first-ever grade 6-8 school owned and operated by a Catholic educational institution in Dubuque. Previously, all Catholic elementary schools operated K-8 programs.
• In June 2007, Holy Family closed two of its long-operating elementary schools, St. Joseph The Worker and St. Joseph Key West. Our Lady of Guadalupe Spanish Immersion Program, which was housed at St. Joseph The Worker, will move to St. Anthony Elementary School in Fall 2007. St. Joseph The Worker will continue to operate its early childhood program, although the future of St. Joseph Key West is unknown.

Early Childhood Centers

• Holy Ghost
• Resurrection
• St. Anthony
• St. Columbkille
• St. Joseph The Worker
• St. Mary
• Trinity Square

Elementary schools

• Holy Ghost Elementary School
• Our Lady of Guadalupe Spanish Immersion Program (within St. Anthony ES)
• Resurrection Elementary School
• St. Anthony Elementary School
• St. Columbkille Elementary School