Why is Mater Dei looking to relocate?
With the new Stella Maris Academy High School as an option now for families in Duluth, Mater Dei is shifting its focus to address the need for an option south of Duluth. The Cloquet Deanery is an area that is currently underserved and there has been growing interest in the Mater Dei model for Catholic high school in that region.
The decision for relocation has been made in cooperation with Bishop Daniel Felton, who desires to make Catholic high school education available to as many families as possible throughout the entire Diocese.
What about families in Duluth that Mater Dei currently serves?
Mater Dei will still be an option for families in Duluth, with a short commute south. When a relocation comes to fruition, transportation options will be assured for current Mater Dei families.
Why the Cloquet area? If the intent is to serve families in the Cloquet Deanery from Duluth to Pine City, then why not establish a location in the center, halfway between the two?
Because the Cloquet area is fertile ground. Mater Dei needs its program to take root before it can grow and expand. The vision is to eventually establish a satellite campus further south.
Why is the Cloquet area fertile ground?
Queen of Peace is a growing PreK—8 Catholic school in Cloquet that provides its students with an ideal preparation for the Mater Dei program. Queen of Peace and Mater Dei are closely aligned in their educational philosophy and vision for Catholic education and formation.
Over the past three years, organic connections between Mater Dei and Queen of Peace have been established and continue to strengthen. For example:
Six current Mater Dei instructors are parishioners at Queen of Peace
Two Queen of Peace parishioners serve on the Mater Dei Governing Board
Three Queen of Peace parishioners serve on the Mater Dei Advisory Board, including the QOP Pastor/President and the QOP Principal
Will Mater Dei and Queen of Peace eventually just combine into one entity?
Mater Dei Apostolate will remain a lay-run non profit organization, offering a hybrid education program for high schoolers. Absorbing into the corporate structure of Queen of Peace would jeopardize the autonomy that Mater Dei currently enjoys, which is a distinct benefit to the families it serves.
The hybrid model of Mater Dei is a compliment to the PreK-8 diocesan school model. Working in tandem, the two models are a beautiful representation of a genuine Catholic school, which is fundamentally the extension of a Catholic home.
What is a hybrid education model?
The hybrid model of Mater Dei is a homeschool program with conventional features. All students who participate at Mater Dei are homeschool students in accordance with Minnesota law, but they are taught fully by qualified instructors at the Mater Dei education center for the courses they register for. The model is used as an innovative solution to provide affordable, accessible, and authentically Catholic high school education, while honoring the role of parents as primary educators.
Affordable:
By leveraging the “best of both worlds” of conventional schooling and homeschooling, Mater Dei is able to keep its operating costs low. Within the hybrid structure, Mater Dei effectively operates a four-day school week, hires adjunct instructors per-course under the supervision of a headmaster, trains parents to be in charge of their own record-keeping and transcripts, and prioritizes academics over extracurricular activities, thereby reducing operating costs.
Course fees for a full-time student at Mater Dei are only $1,800 per year.
Each Mater Dei family is a committed ambassador for its Monthly Match Program, which consists of recruiting relatives and community members to become recurring monthly donors to Mater Dei. Recurring monthly donations are then matched by Mater Dei Partners through this program.
Accessible:
Mater Dei is a practical and flexible option for families with conventional school backgrounds, homeschool backgrounds, and for those who live in distant, rural communities without access to a Catholic high school. Students may participate in the Mater Dei program full-time, part-time, remotely, or in-person, based on their individual needs and circumstances, with student life resembling that of a university-style, brick-and-mortar school. This adaptability makes the Mater Dei model ideal to effectively serve a large geographic area, with potential for the establishment of satellite campuses as the program grows.
It should be noted that within the structure of the hybrid model, Mater Dei students are permitted to participate in their resident public school athletics and extra curricular activities, which allows them to stay connected within their local communities. Among Mater Dei students themselves, a Christ-centered community is intentionally established and cultivated through daily Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, spiritual retreats, pilgrimages, required monthly service projects, and an annual semi-formal dinner event.
Authentically Catholic:
The curriculum of Mater Dei is classical and rooted in the Catholic intellectual tradition. Excellence in the quality of instruction is essential. With its adjunct-instructor model, Mater Dei has the opportunity to recruit high-quality educators who are specialized in their subject area but can’t or don’t want to have a full-time teaching position, such as retired educators, college professors with flexible schedules and stay-at-home parents with teaching backgrounds. In this way, Mater Dei is maximizing the quality of educators they can hire, while at the same time reducing costs. They are utilizing an untapped resource of passionate Catholic laity who want to use their gifts, time and talent for the good of the Church.
Mater Dei recognizes its role to bring students together in an authentically Catholic environment to learn from qualified educators. Beyond that, they honor the role of parents as primary educators of their children. The hybrid model serves to strengthen parents and the family unit under the principle of subsidiarity as articulated by Pope Pius XI, further demonstrating the authentically Catholic nature of the program.
