Nativity Prep, Wilmington’s tuition-free middle school for boys, is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2023-24, and its big birthday bash was March 9 at the Waterfall in Claymont.
Leading up to that event, a few men who were involved in Nativity’s creation and its current president talked about the impact the school has had on its students and the community.
Father Richard DeLillio, an Oblate of St. Francis de Sales, had been the director of development for his religious congregation when he was tabbed to be Nativity’s first president. While there was excitement about the new school in a donated former spa on Clayton Street, there was some trepidation.
“I remember thinking, how was I going to pay the first payroll,” he recalled from Childs, Md., where he lives at the Oblates’ retirement center.
That crisis was averted, and 15 students began that first year. Brian Ray, who is in his fourth year at Nativity and first as president, said after a drop in enrollment following the COVID pandemic, the school has filled back up. They began the academic year with an enrollment in the mid-50s.
“This year we opened up the second biggest we ever did. Next year we’re on track to be over 60 kids,” he said.
In the early days, Nativity had to convince families to send their boys to a place where they might not know anyone. School days were — and remain — longer, and they convened on Saturdays as well. Parents had to commit to service at the school. Today, Ray said, 80 percent of the students who enroll are referred by current or past families, community partners or others.
The academic rigor has been maintained. Students are in school until 5 p.m. each day. There are summer sessions, and the boys spend a few weeks at De Sales University in Center Valley, Pa., which is operated by the Oblates. They have field trips that give them an opportunity to see some things beyond Wilmington.
It takes some adjustment, Ray said.
“We always say there’s three things that make a successful kid at Nativity,” he said. “One, they have to have some desire to learn. Two, they’ve got to have a parent or guardian to connect with. Three, they have to want to be there. I think what happens is the first month or two is a transition.”
Over time, the boys come to see they are in the same situation with the same goals. As is the case at Salesianum School, a brotherhood is encouraged.
“They want to be there. They want to be part of the family,” Ray said.
The school will be adding more in the way of science, technology, engineering and mathematics this summer, he continued, along with innovation and robotics. Space in the building also will be reconfigured.
Nativity was founded by the Oblates as part of Salesianum’s 100th anniversary in 2003. Father Tom Curran, who was Salesianum’s president, and Oblate Father Joseph Morissey, who was the provincial, were involved, as was Father DeLillio. Brendan Kennealey, a Salesianum graduate who would later become its president, did the feasibility study. At the time, he was principal of a Nativity school in Boston.
The relationship with Salesianum remains strong, but Nativity is its own entity. Ray said Oblate Father Brian Zumbrum comes over once a month to celebrate Mass, and there are representatives from Sallies on Nativity’s board. Salesianum is also among the high schools that partner with Nativity to accept its graduates.
The spirituality of St. Francis de Sales also permeates the building. That starts in fifth grade, which is the youngest grade in the school.
“We’re St. Francis de Sales all the way,” Ray said.
Father DeLillio said the brotherhood that exists at Salesianum is also present at Nativity. The students are there to push and help each other, and so is the faculty and staff.
“You get to know them, get to know their families. They’re really good kids. They just need the right avenue to put them on. They really feel like they belong here,” Father DeLillio said.
He said he found out early that there were people who became a “network of support” for Nativity, from Salesianum and elsewhere.
“The people that have helped us out over the years are tremendous,” he said. “You can never measure the limit of goodness.”
This year, for the first time, there are no AmeriCorps teachers on the staff, just full-timers. Ray said there are a few reasons for that, including the desire to give the boys what they deserve.
“We want to find the best teachers for our kids,” he said. “They are competing with kids from all the other middle schools. All those schools are getting their kids ready for high school, and we’ve got to do that as well.”
Ray said the jump in enrollment shows that a need exists in Wilmington and is not going away.
The event at the Waterfall was a celebration/fundraiser with about 400 people, including Father Curran, who left Salesianum to become associate vice president at Regis University in Denver, Colo., and president of Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Mo., a position he held from 2006-22. He joined the Jesuits in 2011.
Ray said one of the highlights for him was presenting an award to John Drennon, a custodian who has been at the school for 18 years, far past normal retirement age.
“He’s a model of consistency for our boys. He’s part of the institution,” he said.
Father DeLillio reported it was the school’s largest-ever fundraiser. The highlight, he added, was hearing speeches from Nativity graduates about how the school changed their lives. He said he remains as enthusiastic about Nativity today as he was 20 years ago.
“The thing I always tell people about Nativity is it just works.”
