By admin 
On Oct. 4, it will be one year since Jesuit High School’s board of trustees announced that it would end the school’s all-boys educational model and become coeducational. The decision was among the most consequential in the school’s more than 60-year history.
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A year later, questions surrounding the decision have not gone away. They have only grown.
Opposition among alumni, parents and other members of the Jesuit community has intensified. An online petition urging school leaders to reconsider the decision has garnered nearly 1,500 signatures. Alumni and donors have offered $100,000 to fund an independent study of the decision, and they pledged more than $9 million to help preserve Jesuit’s all-boys model.
These are not signs of a community unwilling to confront challenges. They are signs of a community asking to be heard.
Founded in 1963, Jesuit invites young men to pursue a path of faith, character and service — “Men for Others” — through an educational model tailored to their academic, social, emotional and spiritual development.
Families choose Jesuit for that mission. Alumni remain connected to it. Donors believe in it. It works.
Board members cited financial pressures, including enrollment and revenue concerns, as reasons for adopting coeducation. But that explanation warrants greater scrutiny, particularly because admitting female students could require significant new spending.
Providing young women with educational and athletic opportunities equal to those available to young men could require millions of dollars in infrastructure improvements. Locker rooms, athletic facilities, restrooms and other campus facilities may need to be added or expanded. Parking and other campus capacity issues may also need to be addressed.
That raises a basic question: If financial pressures are serious enough to justify abandoning Jesuit’s historic educational model, how does the school justify the potentially substantial capital investments required to become coeducational?
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The community deserves to see those numbers.
I am an engaged alumnus, a former member of Jesuit’s board of trustees, a recent chair of its audit committee and a businessman with extensive financial experience. I understand the pressures institutions face. Based on publicly available information, I do not believe the case has been made to justify a fundamental change to Jesuit’s mission.
Jesuit has faced difficult challenges before. In 1974, just eleven years after its founding, the school nearly closed. It survived because community members came together to find a way forward while preserving its mission.
That community is ready to help again.
This is not an argument against strong Catholic education for young women. Sacramento already has an outstanding all-girls Catholic high school, St. Francis High School. Enrolling girls at Jesuit would also create new competition for students currently served by St. Francis, potentially increasing enrollment pressure on another important Catholic institution.
The issue is whether eliminating a successful and distinctive all-boys option is necessary and whether every reasonable alternative has been thoroughly considered.
One year after the decision, the board still has an opportunity to unite the Jesuit community.
Pause the transition. Disclose the financial, enrollment and capital-improvement assumptions underlying the decision. Engage alumni, parents, and donors in genuine discernment. Independently evaluate alternatives that could preserve Jesuit’s all-boys mission.
Nearly 1,500 petition signers and millions of dollars in pledged support demonstrate that this community is not walking away from Jesuit. It is seeking a voice in its future.
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It is not too late to listen, and it is not too late to protect the mission.
Jim Bowman is a former member of Jesuit High School’s board of trustees.