Teacher Nancy Bitter gets a hug from Karim Laury. (Michael E. Keating photos) | ZOOM |

        Sending her students off with goodbye hugs, teacher Sarah Parnitzke watched her nine kindergartners spill onto the streets of Over-the-Rhine for the summer. School ended Fridayat St. Peter Claver Latin School for Boys, but the worrying has just begun.

        “It concerns me that they'll be out on the streets and not keeping up with the things we taught them,” Miss Parnitzke said. “They love to learn. It scares me they'll be influenced by other kids who don't have those ideals.”

        St. Peter Claver just completed its first year, with 15 students in grades K-3. The school is affiliated with Old St. Mary's Catholic Church in Over-the-Rhine.

        The school was founded by the Rev. Albert Lauer, pastor of Old St. Mary's. His vision is to transform Over-the-Rhine by educating young boys to be leaders who will return to the community and be catalysts for change.

SCHOOL FACTS

Malik McCrary gets academic help from school aide Pablo Arellano.   • Where: 13th and Main streets, Over-the-Rhine.   • Spring enrollment: 15 in grades K-3.   • Fall enrollment: 30-35 in grades K-4. Two-thirds of the slots are reserved for Over-the-Rhine or other inner-city children.   • Tuition: $3,200 on a sliding scale. Most students are on full-tuition scholarships funded by corporate and individual donors.   • Teachers: Five.   • Future: The school will add one grade each year to eventually become K-12. The school is searching for a facility to accommodate future growth, as well as funds for purchase and remodeling.   • Information: 929-9164.

        With the school's rigorous academic standards and values, he hopes these boys grow up to be good fathers and good citizens.

        The school concentrates on boys, Father Lauer said, because it's young males who run the drug rings and gangs in Over-the-Rhine. It's young men who commit violent acts, he said. He wants to channel that energy into something good.

        “To run a prostitution and drug ring requires tremendous management skills,” Father Lauer said. “There is obviously leadership ability, but it's not being used for the positive benefit of people.”

        Visions take work, though, and it hasn't been an easy year for St. Peter Claver. At times, it seemed the little school at 13th and Main wouldn't survive. Consider:

        • The principal, Wayne Schwitz, developed health problems the first week of school and had to resign after seven days. He was replaced by Vivian Jansen, a 26-year educator.

Zaier Dudley and Julian Myers nap during Mass in St. Mary's Church next to the school. | ZOOM |

        • The school lost half of its students, starting the year with 30 students and ending with 15. In the first month of school, 14 were either suspended and didn't return or were expelled due to disruptive behavior.

        “You hate to face that,” Father Lauer said. “I have a tendency to say you can do anything, but sometimes, you have to be more in touch with reality.

        “Many of these kids don't have fathers. They're out of control, some of them are. They just run the streets. They have no respect for anybody. ... It shows the reason for the school.”

        • The boys sobbed when the Rev. Charles Mutyaba, 45, Old St. Mary's associate pastor and mentor to the students, died of pneumonia Jan. 26.

        • Father Lauer was diagnosed with liver cancer in February. He may not live to see these little boys grow up to be the leaders he envisions. The boys took the news hard. Father Lauer's CT scan May 29 was inconclusive. He will undergo more tests to determine whether the cancer is in remission or has progressed.

Rev. Lauer

        Last month, at daily Mass that the boys attend, he said, “Our Father, we pray that when we die, all things that we wished to accomplish will be done.”

        Despite the setbacks, the school provides the only stability in some of these students' lives.

        One boy was told that if he didn't shape up, he'd have to attend school that Saturday.

        “Can we come to school on Saturday, too?” he asked, hopefully.
       

Sitting still
               When school started last August, chaos posed the biggest challenge. The boys just couldn't settle down.

        “They were very undisciplined,” Miss Parnitzke said. “They were literally falling out of their chairs.”

        Miss Parnitzke and instructional assistant Nancy Bitter kept order by singling out students who exhibited good behavior. Being competitive, the others wanted to be model students, too, and fell into line.

        “In the beginning, it was hard just keeping their attention,” Miss Parnitzke said. “They didn't know how to sit in chairs for any length of time. Now, they have a craving to learn. One day, Karim and Camilo said, "Can we skip recess and do math worksheets?'”

        Parents like the school as much as the children. Mary Myers, who had a kindergartner and a third-grader there this year, praised the staff, small class sizes and curriculum.

        “I think they're getting an excellent opportunity, especially with the Latin and the Spanish,” the Mount Airy resident said. “I just feel grateful. I think all of my prayers were answered.”
       

With little means
               The school makes do with few resources. Teachers and students checked out books at the public library. For recess, teachers led students single file to a park a block away.

        There's no kitchen at the school, so Old St. Mary parish volunteers took turns bringing lunch. People gave new and used guitars for Miss Parnitzke's guitar ensemble of four second- and third-graders.

        “You really find out how good people are, working here. They're just so generous,” Miss Parnitzke said.

        Sometimes, donations come from unlikely places.

        “People in prison send $5 a month from their 20-cent-an-hour jobs,” Mrs. Bitter said. “I did remind (the students) one day when they were goofing off and not being responsive. I said, "Did you realize that while you're here, someone is paying your tuition?' ”

        Volunteers from churches in mostly white Anderson and Union townships brought pizza on Fridays. It gave the volunteers a window to a world they hadn't seen.

        Perhaps the biggest surprise was learning the boys didn't know how to play baseball. They picked up the bases as they ran and didn't understand teamwork.

        “If I handed one of them a rock and said, "Hit that other kid with the rock,' he could do it,” said Dave Downs of Anderson Township, a volunteer from Lutheran Church of the Resurrection. “If I had a ball and said, "Throw this ball to the other kid so he can tag the kid next to him out,' he couldn't do it.”

        Besides craving learning, the kids crave attention. Hugs are dispensed freely — and often.

        “My husband passed away last year,” Mrs. Bitter said, hugging a student. “A friend told me you need 13 hugs a day. I get all the hugs I need here.”
       

Signs of impact
               Nine kindergartners dressed in blue-and-white school uniforms stood and faced a large crucifix hanging on the wall. They made the sign of the cross and prayed the Hail Mary, then seamlessly prayed it again in Latin.

        They prayed for their parents, their grandmas and grandpas, the school benefactors. They seemed like typical kindergartners, until one of them threw a curveball back to the reality of their lives.

        “I pray for my uncle who threw my brother out the window,” one boy said nonchalantly.

        Many of the children come from broken homes and live in poverty. “The joys and successes are seeing these children grow and development in confidence, enthusiasm and a desire to learn,” Mrs. Jansen said.

        “The pitfalls would be the difficulties some of these little ones struggle with in their environment. They have a hard time growing in that environment.”

        But as the students settled down for a religion lesson, there were signs that St. Peter Claver is making an impact.

        “Am I your sister?” Mrs. Bitter asked.

        “Yeaaah,” the children said in a long chorus.

        “I'm white, though,” she said. “How can I be your sister?”

        “It doesn't matter,” Karim said, “We're all God's children.”

        On the last day, the boys received awards and kissed Nini, the guinea pig, goodbye for the summer. Mrs. Jansen led them in saying the Lord's Prayer.

        “That's a wonderful prayer, especially for the summer,” she said after they finished.

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