It’s after lunch on a Friday in the new year, and five seventh-graders gather in an upstairs classroom at St. Rita’s Catholic School. They’re meeting Anne Egan, a retired principal with experience and credentials too many to mention. An IVC volunteer, Egan is here twice a week from noon to 4 p.m. She helps with classroom projects and after-school activities. Today’s science assignment: Planning a Raised Bed Garden.
It’s a first-time project for Egan and the kids. It’s part of St. Rita’s newly designed Art, Play, Pray program, a $7.5 million transformation of the campus celebrating its one-year anniversary.
“I don’t know what we’d do without our IVC volunteers,” says St. Rita’s principal Gina Olsen. “They provide high-caliber support of Catholic education in classrooms, on the playground, and in the library.”
And in the garden. The garden project will span from winter into spring. With Egan’s guidance, the students will learn the benefits of using raised beds and what vegetables or plants grow well in the area.
They’ll design it and do plant selection and layout. They’ll also discover why planning is important, what challenges they might face, and how to solve them. “The IVC partnership has been a fantastic gift to our school,” says Olsen, the principal. “Our IVC partnership helps us add value to the students and teachers day-to-day without the high cost. Our budget could not afford on its own the amount of service IVC provides.”
St. Rita’s has been an important part of the community for three quarters of a century. The parish began in 1940 in southeast San Diego in what was then a community of military housing. The school was founded in 1951 to meet those needs. Today, after serious challenges – including a near closure – the school offers classes to kids Pre-K through 8th grade.
The ethnic makeup of the school is as diverse as the community it serves. The almost 200-person student body is 45% Hispanic, 40% Asian, 10% Black and 5% multiracial. There’s a free lunch program through San Diego city schools and learning support through San Diego Unified.
Half of all St. Rita’s students belong to the parish; 89% are Catholic. Half receive tuition assistance.
“We have some very special ‘angels’ helping us balance the budget and make capital improvements,” says Olsen. And there’s so much to be proud of.
There are legacy families, like the Ayalas, that are multi-generational. Their family includes a second-grader, a third-grader, a mom, a grandma and a great-grandfather who all went to St. Rita’s!
Principal Olsen is working on a legacy of her own. Every day, she brings two of her grandkids to school at St. Rita’s.
There’s also a steady stream of students who graduated from St. Rita’s returning. They’re part of the volunteer “payback” program, volunteering for 60 hours a year.
Egan is one of five IVC volunteers at St. Rita’s. Teresa Bautista is an instructional aide in fourth grade; Marla Fernández is an instructional aide in kindergarten and first grade; Maria Krick is an instructional aide in kindergarten and second grade; and Veronica O’Neill volunteers as the school librarian every Tuesday.
The IVC team is part of a Center City Catholic Schools Initiative that receives funding from The St Augustine Foundation grant. And it’s growing.
In addition to Egan’s twice-weekly classroom duties, she’s the unofficial mentor to teacher LaToya Cunningham, one of St. Rita’s newest teachers.
Cunningham grew up in the neighborhood but basketball took her to La Jolla Country Day. She was named The San Diego Union-Tribune’s high school basketball player of the year in 2005 and later played at the University of Miami.
“She did not attend St. Rita’s, but her brother and sister did,’’ Egan says. “And they still live in the neighborhood. Community is important to LaToya. We share recess supervision duties and try to bring a calm, caring, and motivating bond to the kids.”
St. Rita’s achieved certification as a STEM and Blended Learning institution in 2021, marking a new chapter in their education journey. “This cutting-edge curriculum equips our students with the skills and knowledge needed to thrive in the 21st century,” says Principal Olsen. St. Rita’s is also accredited by the Western Catholic Educational Association (WCEA) and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC).
Egan is enjoying her work at St. Rita’s. Watching them all grow. In the classroom, on the playground…and in the garden.
– Written by Adrienne Finley, IVC San Diego Regional Council Member
