DOVER — On a previous visit to Holy Cross School in Dover, Tom Fertal shared with the eighth-graders the names of some famous trailblazers. Fertal stood before that same group of students on Dec. 4 as one of them became a trailblazer at the school Fertal leads, Holy Cross High School.
Zachary Klaus signed on the dotted line as the first student to enroll at Holy Cross High, which will open next fall a few miles from the elementary school. Fertal, the high school’s founding president, watched with a smile, then handed Klaus a Class of 2029 long-sleeve t-shirt.
“Today, we’re proud to celebrate a first,” Fertal said. “We hope that all of you decide to join the crew.”
Klaus said he lives near the former St. Thomas More Academy, and that was the school his parents had in mind when he was younger. St. Thomas More, however, closed in 2020. The family definitely wanted to continue with Catholic education, and fortunately for them, an alternative emerged with the new Holy Cross High School.
“It’s close,” Klaus said. “All the other schools that are private and Catholic, they’re upstate. It’s the closest one, and it’s also Holy Cross, and I’ve been going to Holy Cross since kindergarten.”
Having to drive to New Castle County every day would have been a challenge for his parents, he said, and it may have affected his opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities. He hopes to participate in some athletics at Holy Cross High.
His mother, Christina, said her three older children attended Caesar Rodney High School in Camden-Wyoming, but “we want to continue our faith-filled journey with a Catholic-based education. This is something that’s very important to us as they enter into high school in these formative years. We would have been looking for a Catholic high school regardless, and we got lucky that this is happening at the time that it is.”
She and her husband, Lewis, have another son at Holy Cross Elementary, Nicholas, who is in seventh grade.
The announcement of the establishment of a new Holy Cross High School came in early 2024, and Fertal was tabbed to lead it after a tenure at Saint Mark’s High School during which enrollment spiked and the school raised $8 million through a capital campaign, with work ongoing. He said things are moving quickly with Holy Cross High.
Applications are open, and acceptance letters are going out. Interview for the principal’s position began Dec. 4. Renovations continue at the temporary location on Dupont Highway.
“While we’re renovating that temporary building, we’re still in pursuit of 40 or 50 acres for a full campus. Fundraising is going well. We’re creeping up on four million of the $6 million we’re trying to raise initially to start everything,” Fertal said.
Once a principal is hired, Fertal will turn his attention to assembling a faculty. He doesn’t want to wait until the spring for that. Fortunately, he said, there has been a lot of interest in teaching at Holy Cross.
“So, even though there’s this teacher shortage around the country, we’re getting a lot of interest” he said.
Fertal said marketing Holy Cross High School is different than what he experienced at Saint Mark’s, which was one of several Catholic and private options for families above the canal. One of the positives, he said, is that he can get more personal with prospective families considering his school.
“There’s definitely a lot of interest,” he said. “It will be easier next year and the year after that as the younger kids talk about it.”
Christina Klaus is confident that Holy Cross High School is the right decision for her children.
“We have faith, and that is what we are banking on is our faith in this process,” she said.
