Enrollment season has arrived at St. Peter Claver Catholic School in St. Paul, where this year more than ever, the invitation is to be a part of history.

St. Peter Claver is celebrating its 75th year.

An all-school reunion has been held, and the marketing campaign ramps up soon, reminding families of the school's standing as a staple of St. Paul's Rondo community. But there's a twist: St. Peter Claver is no longer a neighborhood school.

Principal Terese Shimshock said less than 10% of students come from the surrounding Summit-University area. Many arrive, instead, from Maplewood, Eagan and other suburbs. Still, she said, more than half of the 91 preschool to eighth-grade students have ties to Rondo families of the past.

"They say, 'My aunties went here, my grannies went here,' " Shimshock said. "It's that history that's so special about Claver."

St. Peter Claver is one of four Catholic schools under the umbrella of Ascension Catholic Academy, a Minneapolis-based group providing centralized leadership and support to schools tailored to serve urban families in need.

"If it wasn't for Ascension and the board there, we wouldn't even be here," Lynn Wright, parent and scholar liaison at St. Peter Claver, said last week. "I'd like to thank them for taking us under their wing."

Familiar connections

Wright, who like St. Peter Claver also happens to be 75, knows its history well.

She attended the school with Melvin Carter Jr., father of the city's mayor and a fellow Claver graduate, when it was common to see siblings and cousins filling classrooms, she said.

The school is connected to the church by a tunnel that still has a fallout shelter sign, Wright said.

Nuns were teaching when she attended, and she recalled how one accompanied her and some classmates on bus rides to bars on the city's West Side to sell candy during school fundraisers.

"We sold all of our candy bars," she said.

About 17 years ago, Wright returned to St. Peter Claver to run the after-school program and assist teachers with math instruction, among other assignments. Her current position calls for her to tend to children's behavioral needs, including getting them on task if they're acting up.

"Sometimes I talk to them or sometimes I just look at them, and they'll straighten up," Wright said. "Sometimes they just want a hug."

Shimshock is the fifth principal she has worked with, and the two were surprised to learn they had a strong connection that had not been apparent from their respective families' surnames: "Our mothers grew up together," Wright said. "My mother talked about her all of the time."

Added Shimshock, "Isn't that crazy?"

Rounding up alums

Just before the 2016-17 school year, Shimshock was attending Mass at a church in Lino Lakes — a few months after having left a previous principal's position at a suburban Catholic school — and she said that she prayed to God about what to do next and about how best to use my gift.

She left the church and discovered a message on her phone. It was from Patricia Stromen, president of Ascension Catholic Academy.

"She said, 'You don't know who I am, but I'm looking for an interim principal at St. Peter Claver,' " Shimshock recalled last week.

Stromen has said the academy's mission is to help historically marginalized families. At St. Peter Claver, 98% of students are students of color and every student receives some form of financial aid, Shimshock said. Kindergarten is free, with tuition covered by donations.

Looking ahead, the school hopes it can push enrollment past 100 students and form an alumni association to mentor students and contribute donations, Shimshock said. She added that the "back office" at Ascension is going through a list of people who've expressed interest — names gathered as part of the November all-school reunion that drew about 150 people, some from Florida and Georgia.

"Amazing," Shimshock said of the event. "It was like a family reunion."