EL CENTRO — Students, parents, teachers and even the principal of Sacred Heart School in Brawley, which closed last summer, have found a new home at St. Mary’s School in neighboring El Centro.
At St. Mary’s, the 2024-2025 academic year began Aug. 21. Among the approximately 180 students enrolled this year are 19 who attended Sacred Heart School last year.
After the announcement that Sacred Heart School was closing due to years of low enrollment, the Diocese of San Diego offered an annual $1,000 scholarship for Sacred Heart students who decided to continue their Catholic education this year at either St. Mary’s or Our Lady of Guadalupe Academy in Calexico.
“Sacred Heart students are thriving and have been enthusiastically embraced by the St. Mary’s community,” said Principal Annalisa Burgos, who came to St. Mary’s this year after eight years as Sacred Heart School’s principal.
Second-grader Dominic Lu admits that he was “very sad” to learn that Sacred Heart School, where he had been a student for two years, was closing.
“Sacred Heart School closing meant not seeing some of my teachers and a lot of my friends and classmates,” he said.
But of his first year at St. Mary’s, he said, “It’s going great so far.”
Fourth-grader Valentina Berry had attended Sacred Heart School for six years.
“I felt really sad and really nervous to go to a new school,” she admitted, while adding that the new school year has been “really fun because I have a teacher that is really funny and all my classmates are nice.”
The principal said that parents of transfer students from Sacred Heart School have been “relieved and pleased with their children’s smooth transition to their new school environment.”
And these parents have quickly become active members of their new school community, she said, sharing that several Sacred Heart families have joined the Parent Teacher Group (PTG) and have volunteered as room parents.
Burgos said that five teachers from Sacred Heart School have joined the St. Mary’s faculty this year, while two more are now teaching at Our Lady of Guadalupe Academy.
“All of them have been warmly welcomed and are thriving in their new roles,” Burgos said of her former Sacred Heart colleagues.
For Belen Villalobos, a seventh-grader who had attended Sacred Heart School for eight years, seeing these familiar faces has been a boon.
She said that she was “excited and happy” that some students and teachers from Sacred Heart would also be going to St. Mary’s.
“It’s been nice getting to know new teachers,” she said, “but also having some of the same teachers, too.”
Burgos actually has a history with her new school: She taught middle-schoolers there from 2000 to 2002.
“St. Mary’s School holds a special place in my heart, as it was where I began my ministry in Catholic education years ago,” she said. “Returning to St. Mary’s has felt like coming home, and the transition has been even more positive than I could have hoped.
“While the closure of Sacred Heart School was a challenging experience,” she said, “I trust in God’s plan and believe He guides us through these changes.”
