St. John Bosco Schools purchases new facility in East Rochester | News

St. John Bosco Schools, founded in 2008 in response to the closing of 13 Diocese of Rochester elementary schools, has announced the purchase of the original St. Jerome parish school building on Garfield Street in East Rochester.

St. John Bosco Schools offers the only classical, liberal arts curriculum for Pre-K through 8th grade students in the region. The approach is part of a small but growing movement in education that is producing tangible results. Recent standardized test scores showed that the average St. John Bosco student to be 2½ grade levels above average, according to Headmaster Colleen Richards.

"It is the way to teach children," said co-founder and board member Mark S. Peterson, President and CEO of Greater Rochester Enterprise. "They are learning at a rate and in a way that other educational models are not able to match." Peterson, former president of Bishop Kearney High School, enrolled his youngest child in the school from its inception.

Parent and community support has propelled the start-up school from 12 families and 26 students when it opened four years ago to 82 students and 36 families at the close of the past school year. The purchase of the 33,000 square-foot building will provide space for increased enrollment, extracurricular activities and outreach programs in the community.

The founders' vision aims at a network of small independent schools in the Catholic tradition, based on the proven results of the classical curriculum. Inquiries have come from far reaches of the diocese from those who are interested in possible satellite locations, according to board members.

Peterson noted that the school's organizers took a giant leap of faith when they decided to start the school, but momentum has continued to build since the beginning.