Escuela Parroquial Santa Rita
Escuela Parroquial Santa Rita (Santa Rita Parochial School) is the name of a private, catholic elementary and high school located in the city of San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic, within the province of the same name. It is also referred to as Colegio Santa Rita, since the word colegio is used for private schools in the Dominican Republic.
It was founded in 1961. The school name comes from Saint Rita of Cascia, patron of the lost and impossible causes.
It is administered by the local parish church, under the direction of the Augustinian Recollects, a Roman Catholic monastic order. The motto of the school is Science and Love, represented by a heart with a flame above it, and a book, sloped together with what resembles an arrow or a writing plume. This is precisely the image used by the Augustinian Recollects for themselves.
Location
The Escuela Parroquial Santa Rita is located on Ave. Libertad, right in front of the San Cristóbal city entrance. The building was the San Cristóbal headquarters for the Dominican Party during the dictatorship of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina, and was later donated to the Catholic Church after the end of such period.
There is another building four blocks away heading west, where Maternal Santa Rita was created, for preschoolers. The first four years of elementary school also take place here.
Academic excellence
Santa Rita is recognized as one of the best schools in San Cristóbal, not only for its high average in the National Testing System of the Dominican Republic (first place several times), but for its students excellent performance in college.
In the year of its 40th anniversary (2001), a national assessment of schools was done by the State Secretariat of Education, in which Santa Rita achieved 6th place in the nation. Only seven schools nationwide received a score of 900+ in the assessment. The principal in charge of the school during the assessment (and during the previous years) was the then priest Juan Cruz García, who directs Sapientia, a school in the City of Santo Domingo.
The school’s academic quality is often compared with that of Instituto Politécnico Loyola (Loyola Polytechnic Institute), and even challenged. Such comparison is out of place, since they are different institutions. IPL is a specialized school (with five years of high school and a stricter schedule) which issues technician and technologist diplomas; whereas Santa Rita is a regular school.
40-years anniversary
The year of the 40th anniversary (2001) brought celebrations and activities, such as rallies, charitable fairs, the outdoor movie theater, parties, religious retirements, masses, etc. A t-shirt was designed with a 40-years anniversary logo, and such logo was in every letter issued by the school that year.
The 40th anniversary ceremony was hosted by Principal Priest Juan, and attended by all teachers, students and important personalities of the city. A speech was given by the then president and vice-president of the student council, Mary Carmen Storm and Sebastián A. Domínguez-Perozo, respectively. This ceremony and the subsequent School Party were the closure for the 40th anniversary.
Sports
Santa Rita’s sport is basketball. Several interschool tournaments were held during the 1980s and early 1990s, during which the school created a respectable reputation. Popularity decayed during the mid-1990s, but rose again in the late 1990s.
A friendly tournament took place in Las Tunas, Cuba on December 1999 between the town of Jesús Menéndez and Santa Rita. Two categories were created according to age. The younger team won the tournament, while the older team lost.
Other sports practiced in Santa Rita are volleyball, athletics and table tennis. There is a Chess team.
Areas/sections
Santa Rita has a school library that is open to the public; chemistry, physics and biology laboratories, a conference hall, a cafeteria, two outdoor basketball/volleyball courts, classrooms and the administrative building.