In 2012, Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church took a leap of faith when it opened a preschool for 3 and 4 year olds.
Next month, the church and the school will leap ahead again, this time opening a kindergarten class as it expands the school.
Father Thomas Maikowski, the priest of Immaculate Heart, explained the expansion is primarily due to requests of parents who had children in the school.
He explained the school is in the process of seeking accreditation through the Western Catholic Education Association.
“As part of that process, there’s a lot of questionnaires you give out to parents,” Maikowski said. “There were 12 respondents and of the 12, six wanted kindergarten.”
In some ways, Immaculate Heart is a traditional Catholic School. Nuns teach the classes and students attend Mass and pray before meals. But it is also very much a school.

The teachers are all credentialed. Every class, even for 3 years olds, is designed to educate. And the Catholic faith, while the foundation of the school, is not taught in class. In fact, the school is open to children of all faiths and backgrounds.
“Our classrooms are small,” Maikowski said. “The area we have was our first church, and they broke it into four rooms.”
Under an agreement with the state, a maximum of 30 students can attend the school. As of last week, 19 were signed up for the new school year.
Maikowski said when the school began in 2012, it was designed to be educational with classwork important for all ages. As a result, the biggest complaint he hears is from parents whose children have left after two years.
“They tell me, ‘my daughter when she left here was so far ahead of the public schools,” Maikowski said.
Maikowski said he is a big believer in early childhood education.
“If you don’t have some kind of school experience heading into kindergarten, it’s tough on the kids,” he said.
Church member Gregg Martinez is a big supporter of the school and is looking forward to his daughter attending.
“They’re very well behaved,” Martinez said. “That’s one advantage of having small classrooms and one on one interaction with teachers.”
Martinez said his goal is to have the school add a grade every year so his daughter can attend through eighth grade. While Maikowski is not ready to commit to that yet, he said it could be done.
School at Immaculate Heart begins Aug. 7, and school days run from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The school calendar mostly mirrors that of Page public schools.
The cost to attend Immaculate Heart is $325 a month, with a $175 registration fee required when students are signed up. Class sizes are very limited. For information, call the church at (928) 645-2301.