Hales Franciscan High School Goes Coed

Deborah Bayliss | As of Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Hales Franciscan High School has gone co-ed, allowing girls for the first time in 50 years, to join the all-male student population this fall.
Hales Franciscan High School has gone co-ed, allowing girls for the first time in 50 years, to join the all-male student population this fall.

A historically all-male, Roman Catholic high school for African American young men, has gone co-ed, allowing girls for the first time in 50 years, to join the all-male student population. Hales Franciscan High School will welcome the young ladies this fall.

“The students are blending nicely,” said Hales President Jeffrey Gray. “Most of the male students have already gone to school with females because most of the Catholic Schools are coed now.”

Asked why the school, located in the Bronzville neighborhood decided to go coed, Gray said there were two reasons.

“One reason is that we wanted to provide the same high level education to young women. A lot of parents, when they would come to enroll their males, would say they wanted the same kind of education for the females. The other reason is that we have 120 students in a facility built to hold 400 students. When you look at the economics, our future hinges on filling the building to capacity.”

The bottom line is the school’s finances were low and the board felt accepting female students would mean more tuition money for the school. Hales tuition currently, is $7,500 a year. Many of the students attend on scholarship.

“One of the scholarships is called the Access Scholarship,” Gray said. “It’s for CPS students who want to cross over to Catholic school.”

Asked if Urban Prep Academies, the country's first charter public high school for boys, founded in 2002 by Hales former president, Tim King, and a group of African-American education, business and civic leaders who wanted to improve the educational opportunities available to “urban” boys, impacted Hales enrollment, Gray said, “I don’t think Urban Prep impacted our enrollment at all. Not every kid wants to come to Hales; there are other options. If Hales is the right fit, then they’ll come to us…if not then they’ll go to the Urban Prep charter school.”

Recognized for its track record of a 100 percent college acceptance rate, in 2005, Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men opened its Englewood Campus. Since accepting its first class in 2006, Urban Prep has been recognized internationally for its success in improving the academic, social and emotional development of urban young men.

With no tuition requirement, Urban Prep currently operates three schools in Chicago's Englewood, Near West and Bronzeville communities.

Gray said the educational model and opportunities at the two schools is different.

“Hales has a religious and character development component,” Gray said. We promote our Catholic identity while Urban Prep is secular. I’ve gone to the Urban Prep campus and there is a metal detector there. Not that we take safety lightly, but we don’t have that at Hales. It’s always been safe and we have a lot of role models actively engaged with the students. Tim King took the Hales model to the Charter school setting. The only thing he didn’t take was the character development aspect.”

Hales will offer gender-segregated science, math and English classes for freshmen. Female students, 12 so far, can enroll or transfer at any grade level except senior year and will also have access to sports teams.

Many Hales alumni reportedly were upset by the decision to go coed and some alumni are reportedly hesitant to donate to the school under its new identity,

Erica Brownfield, in her second year as Hales principal, reportedly acknowledged the move to coed did not please everyone but made the most sense for the students and the community.

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