Elizabeth Goettl Is Named to National Post

Elizabeth Goettl, president of San Miguel High School in Tucson, Arizona, will join the national office of the Cristo Rey Network in Chicago in July 2009 as Chief Academic Officer for the growing network of Catholic schools bringing innovative, college-preparatory education to poor families.

The Cristo Rey Network is an association of secondary schools that include a “corporate-internship program” in the school schedule and that serve families at poverty level. The fast-growing network is named for the original corporate-internship-model school, Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago, which established the model in 1996.

The second corporate-internship-model school in the nation was founded in 2001 by the De La Salle Christian Brothers. This is De La Salle North Catholic High School in Portland, Oregon. The De La Salle Christian Brothers also founded the fifth school of the type in 2004, San Miguel High School in Tucson, where Elizabeth Goettl has served for the past three years.

Elizabeth Goettl with Lasallian colleagues at Mont La Salle

“The Cristo Rey Network is well established,” says Goettl, “but there is still much to be done to refine the educational model to ensure that students are well prepared to succeed in college. I look forward to the challenge of helping our Network schools, including Tucson’s San Miguel High School, to fortify the academic foundation that will be critical to the future success of the nearly 10,000 students enrolled in Cristo Rey Schools throughout the country.”

There are now 22 high schools in the network. Lasallian educators have played major roles in this innovative effort to bring effective, Catholic, college-preparatory education to families in poverty. Among those Lasallian-connected individuals who have been key supporters of the model are Matt Powell, founding president of De La Salle North Catholic High School in Portland, who serves on the national board of the Network, and B.J. Cassin, president of the Cassin Educational Initiative Foundation in Menlo Park, California, and a longtime supporter of Lasallian education, who is also on the national board.

During Goettl’s tenure at San Miguel High, the school had its inaugural graduating class (achieving one hundred percent college acceptance), completed construction of major new facilities, and increased enrollment from 93 students in two grade levels to 265 students in all four grade levels. At its current growth rate, San Miguel will reach its planned full enrollment of 400 students by the year 2010.

“San Miguel High is strong and growing stronger,” says Goettl, “and I am certain that it will continue to flourish because of the broad support from so many community members and businesses in Tucson and beyond. The need for students of limited financial means to have access to quality college and career preparatory education is essential. I look forward to contributing to this effort. I have thoroughly enjoyed my association in the shared mission of teaching minds and touching hearts through a Catholic, Lasallian education.”

The class of 2008 was San Miguel High School’s inaugural graduating class