With smaller school populations and smaller class sizes, Catholic schools also provide familiarity and structure for students, said Joyce Allison-Saucier, principal of St. Margaret Regional School, a Fall River Diocesan school that educates students from preschool through Grade 8.
“The family structure has changed so drastically,” Allison-Saucier said. “Our students are our family in this school.”
The fact that she knows students’ birthdays without having to look them up is evidence of the close-knit nature of the school, Allison-Saucier said.
“I know pretty much everyone in the school,” said Ingrid Andrade, 13, a seventh-grader at St. Pius X in South Yarmouth.