Corinne and Matthew Hurley never expected to be living at the shore. Or that they would enroll their three children at Bishop McHugh Regional School in Cape May Court House. But then the Hurleys, like the rest of the world, never expected a pandemic either.
With extended family, the Hurleys purchased their Cape May Court House home in February 2020, just before the March closure of school and business buildings. They spent much of the spring and summer there, managing school and their Haddonfield-based CPA practice remotely. When the family returned to their home in Haddonfield full-time to start the new school year, they discovered their public school would operate on a hybrid basis, with the kids going in person just two days a week.
By the third week, said Corinne, everyone in the family was frazzled.
“I thought, ‘I’m going to have to hire a full-time Mary Poppins to teach the kids,’” she said, adding that she could see the social and emotional, not just academic, effects of isolation on her children.
The Hurleys managed the hybrid school routine until the end of October. Continuing to work remotely, they found they missed the quiet pace of the shore. In early in November, they retreated to Cape May Court House and enrolled their children at Bishop McHugh, where they attend school in person, five days a week.
“We’ve found not only that five days of instruction makes a difference, but something else is going on,” said Corinne. “It’s not just the faith, but the culture. Suddenly I was thrown back into a community that is local and global at the same time. I feel more connected to the world. The school feels calmer, more organized, more focused on learning. … The difference is striking.”
Corinne said her children are happier, even nicer and more polite, since they made the move.
Catholic schools throughout South Jersey welcomed many new families for the 2020-21 school year — families like the Hurleys, who wanted their children to be in school full-time, in-person. Now it is the beginning of enrollment season, the time when current families re-register for the coming year. School principals hope their new families, like so many before them, have found a lasting home.
“We really do offer something different,” said Principal Anne Hartman at Christ the King Regional School in Haddonfield. “For those who didn’t understand the Catholic school difference, now they do.”
At Saint Margaret Regional School (Woodbury Heights), Sister Michele Di Gregorio, principal, reported that most of the school’s new families plan to return in the fall. Principals in many schools said new families have been among the first to re-register. Patti Paulsen, principal at Holy Angels Catholic School (Woodbury), said the newest families are among their best cheerleaders, recommending the school to others.
The Hurleys will likely return to their permanent home in Haddonfield when pandemic restrictions are lifted. Corinne says it will be hard to leave Bishop McHugh, but it doesn’t mean the end of Catholic school, which she admits she once considered “old fashioned.”
“My eyes have been opened really wide,” she said. And those eyes see Catholic school in her family’s future, wherever the next chapter leads them.
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