At St. Francis Xavier: Continuity and doubt

ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FLORIDA CATHOLIC MIAMI BUREAU EDITOR

Posted: 07.01.09

OVERTOWN | At the end of June, Brenda Dawson ceased to be principal of St. Francis Xavier School here. But she did not go very far. In July, she became the founding principal of the Theodore R. and Thelma A. Gibson charter school which will open on the grounds of St. Francis this fall.

Dawson said about 40 percent of her 115 former students have enrolled in the kindergarten through eighth-grade charter school, which will accept up to 200 students.

“We really encouraged them that, though it’s not a Catholic school, you’ve got the same principal. You’ve got the same values. I’m Catholic. My husband is a deacon,” said Dawson, a parishioner at St. Philip Neri in Miami Gardens.

She is one of two Catholic principals retained by the charter schools that will be occupying former Catholic school buildings this fall. Beatriz Morris of Corpus Christi School in Wynwood will continue as principal of the Mater Academy of International Studies there. Ana Casariego, principal at Our Lady of Divine Providence in Sweetwater, has been hired as a teacher at its successor, Pinecrest Academy.

“All of the teachers and staff have been interviewed and all of those who were certified have been recommended to return, which has been a positive thing in recruiting of the students,” said Dawson, a 35-year veteran of the public school system who came out of retirement last year at the request of St. Francis Xavier’s pastor, Oblate Missionary Father John Cox. “He said that he needed help.”

She is staying on at the charter school for similar reasons.

“The Gibson school coming here is the one thing that I think is good for the kids who were here at St. Francis, the families who have been here historically,” Dawson said.

Many are coming by and telling her, “I couldn’t afford it before but I wanted my granddaughter to be here,” Dawson said. “Even Jackson Hospital employees are coming by and wanting to register their kids because we’re so close. They always had such wonderful things to say about St. Francis. I say, ‘Why didn’t you come?’ They say, ‘I didn’t think I could afford it.’”

Dawson has a problem, however. Financial difficulties might force St. Francis Xavier to merge with Gesu Parish in downtown Miami later this year. That leaves the after-school religious component in limbo.

“We were expecting to continue the youth ministry through the church. A lot of our parents were looking forward to that,” Dawson said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen. That’s the piece that’s right now a little painful.”

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