A SPICE 2003 Program
A School for All Reasons
Immaculate Conception Schools
Youngstown, Ohio
Immaculate Conception School, "A School for All Reasons," is an inner-city Catholic school located in Youngtown, Ohio. The school has been in existence for 120 years. The school's student demographics have gone through many changes since opening 120 years ago. Established as a mission school in 1982, today the school serves mostly minority students who are not of the Catholic faith. For at least the past 30 years, the administration has provided new programming and found other sources of funding to keep the school viable.
In 1997, the principal began looking at an alternative year calendar as a way to better serve the needs of the current students and a way to attract new students and new life to the building. The school adopted this alternative calendar for the 1998-1999 school year. The year-around calendar offers many benefits for students, including less learning loss and more frequent remediation, enrichment classes, and recreational activities.
The other factor that makes Immaculate Conception School successful is the major fundraising that the school has done. The school has a successful Alumni and Friends Benefit Dinner, a successful Adopt-A-Student Program, and a variety of other smaller fundraisers.
