Breathing new life into Northeast Catholic

For years, rumors have been rustling that all-boys Northeast Catholic High School would merge with Little Flower High School for Girls - or just shut down - because of falling enrollment.

"It's a big myth," declared Will Davis, a North senior and debate club member.

That's debatable.

But here's a fact: A new information technology program that held an open-house yesterday is giving the 81-year-old school another reason for being, and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has pledged to keep North, a Kensington landmark, open for at least five years.

"We met with Bishop [Patrick] McFadden," said John Fries, a 1961 North grad who was instrumental in getting the $1.5 million "IT Academy" off the ground. "I'm an old-time selling guy, and it was one of my better selling jobs. He promised us five years, through 2011."

The academy, launched last month and supported by a nonprofit group led by Fries, aims to do more than simply supply credits toward graduation. It offers professional skills - a valuable commodity in the blue-collar, rowhouse neighborhood.

The academy is licensed to provide Microsoft and Cisco certification to North students who elect to take the courses and then pass the required tests. About 40 of North's 700 students have signed up, including junior Christopher Santos.

"When you're typing something and suddenly the screen changes in front of you, you have no idea how to fix it," Santos said, destroying the notion that kids intuitively understand computers. "This will make Microsoft much more understandable and useful to me."

But students won't be the only ones with the chance to train as information technologists, computer repairmen, and network managers.

"We started thinking, why stop with that?" recalled Fries, a retired businessman.

New night classes have been created for adults who want to get Microsoft and Cisco certification. A night training program lasting about three to six months costs $2,100 to $3,600, said Betty Palmieri, chief operating officer of the new academy.

Though that's not small change, the tuition price is competitive with other certification programs. What's more, graduates will have continued access to the computer labs, and any profit will be put back into the IT Academy, Palmieri said.

Lois Carpenter of Bridesburg, whose son Tim is a junior at North, toured the pristine computer labs yesterday.

"I'm looking at taking courses myself," said Carpenter, who feels hampered in her clerical job by a lack of computer savvy.

North alum Joe Loughnan, 62, of Sicklerville, thought the technology program would entice his grandson into enrolling next year.

"Everybody wants their kid to go to college, but not everybody can go," said Loughnan, a retired firefighter. "This a very good alternative. And computers are the wave of the future."

In the 1960s, when Loughnan and Fries were at North, more than 4,000 young men filled its halls.

Fries could see the handwriting on those halls a few years ago, as enrollment steadily fell to about 700.

Fortunately, McFadden, the archdiocesan director of education, had a vision for a high school specializing in technology that fit with North's strengths, Fries said.

Those strengths include a raft of new online Advanced Placement courses, and a debating club that just won the Model United Nations' World Championship - sort of the Super Bowl of student debating, but bigger.

Asked his opinion of North, debate club member Nick Beattie of Kensington was concise:

"Love it."