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Just saw this thread.
We have kids in MACS (Mecklenburg Area Catholic Schools). St. Mark is k-8 and a great school. It is academically solid and very faith based. It has about 80 kids per grades and as they hit middle school there are lots of options for sports, without tryouts being overly competitive. The down side? The school is not at all diverse and the the small pond, especially for girls, can be very much bases on cliques with little room to get out of the crazy cycle.
Charlotte Catholic High School is rock solid academically for every level of student (struggling, average and super bright kids all have a place there). The school is safe and if your kids want to have a strong group of well behaved faith based kids, they will find them there. It is a large school (by Catholic but not public school standards) of over 1300 and thus has a lot to offer, in terms of academics, sports and the arts.
Downside? The 'faith' is lacking. Yes, they offer daily mass and require a religion class, but there is no priest on staff or around and the kids rarely go to daily mass...and just 'suffer through' school wide mass. They have GREAT sports, but getting on cut based teams and getting playing time is tough for all but very strong athletes. Also, while your kids can find wonderful kids there, there are also lots of friends and outlets for kids who want to find trouble off campus (lots of drinking, parties, etc.). Too many parents seem to let their kids run wild.
I have heard that St. Michael in Gastonia is a wonderful elem. school but the 6-8 grade years are not overly strong academically (only heard this from a couple of parents). Holy Trinity is a 6th-8th grade Catholic middle school that is a Jr. Charlotte Catholic (meaning what I wrote above about that school would apply to Holy Trinity also).
Finally, MACS is hoping to open a new Catholic High School north of Charlotte, near St. Mark. Be aware that it will be very, very small and probably a lot like St. Mark.
I graduated from Charlotte Catholic in 2004, and I went to the Catholic schools in Charlotte from K-12. I had a great experience. It is worthwhile to mention that I went to UNC Chapel Hill along with over 30 of my classmates from my graduating class. Virtually all of my graduating class went to college (although NOT everyone finished it). It is a really great education, I had wonderful teachers, and colleges love it. Yes... there were some problems with kids having too much money, time, and freedom. Some students did drink, and fewer students did drugs. But I now TEACH in a public high school in Union county, and I will say that the kids at Charlotte Catholic were about 100x more respectful and well-behaved at Charlotte Catholic. And I don't teach at a particularly rough high school. All in all, I would say that CCHS is a great choice.
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