BRIDGEPORT — When she was hired as a physical education teacher at Cathedral High School, Jo-Anne Jakab considered it a good “start up” job.
Forty-three years later, Jakab, principal and president of what is now Kolbe Cathedral High School, is ready to move on. Sort of.
At the end of June, Jakab, 66 — who was the first lay woman to lead a school in the Bridgeport Diocese — is giving up the paying gig and moving to Florida with her husband, Gary, who retired last year. Taking over for Jakab will be Henry Rondon, who was dean of students at Kolbe.
However, Jakab said she plans to travel back regularly to work on the school’s advisory board, helping to build a growing endowment and advance strategic planning for the now-coed Catholic high school of some 310 students.
“I want to ensure the future of the school,” she said. “We are working hard to remain affordable and be seen as a premiere option for kids in the city of Bridgeport and greater Bridgeport.
Despite the recent consolidation of a number of Catholic elementary schools in the dioceses of both Bridgeport and Hartford and the influx of high school options in the city, Jakab said said Kolbe remains in a good place.
“Even through our most difficult times and the recent economy, we have held pretty steady,” Jakab said. “We want to believe that we will always be here as a choice for Bridgeport families.”
Starting out
Jakab started at Cathedral in Bridgeport’s Hollow section in 1974. It was an all-girls school and several Daughters of the Holy Spirit were still on staff. Kolbe, then located on Kossuth Street ,was an all-boy school where the Franciscan Friars were still a presence.
Within two years, the schools would merge. Today, there are no nuns on the staff and just one priest who acts as spiritual director.
Then, children sent to the school came mainly from hard working, blue collar, immigrant families who wanted something more for their kids. That remains true today, just the ethnicities have changed.
The $400 paid in tuition four decades ago was as much of a struggle to come up with as today’s $8,450 tuition bill, Jakab said.
This past year, the board gave out $650,000 in scholarships and financial aid, helping to satisfy about half the need, Jakab pointed out.
“Every family makes a sacrifice,” she said.
In exchange, there is the expectation that all Kolbe graduates — there will be 76 on June 1 — will go to college. Some go to schools like Cornell University, Boston College and Fairfield University.
An evolving curriculum
The school was one of the first in the region to change its curriculum to longer, semester-length classes. For the past 18 years, instead of seven class periods a day, Kolbe students have four 80 minute classes a day for half a year. The second half of the school year, they take four more classes, giving them eight in a year.
“Many of our grads say they felt prepared for college and knew how to manage their time,” said Jakab, who became principal in 1991.
The school now offers courses in engineering and entrepreneurship. Partnerships have been struck with both Housatonic Community and St. Vincent’s colleges so that upperclassmen can earn college credits in high school.
In recent years, the school also expanded, acquiring an adjacent building giving the school more classroom space, a chapel and offices.
What hasn’t changed, Jakab said, is the school’s motto: “Work hard and be nice.”
Creating a ‘living legacy’
When she packs up her office at the end of a month, a signed basketball from retired University of Connecticut Basketball Coach Jim Calhoun will go with her. Jakab was the school’s athletic director when Calhoun was recruiting Chris Smith, a Kolbe student. Smith would go on to become the school’s lead scorer.
Another alum is Walter Luckett, a basketball legend who now sits on the school advisory board, helping Kolbe students get internships. Many other alum have gone on to be lawyers, doctors, and business leaders.
“Jo-Anne has ensured that thousands of girls and boys in Bridgeport have had an opportunity to receive a quality high school education,” said John McClutchy, Jr., founder of JHM Financial Group, who is also on Kolbe’s advisory board. “As each of these young women and men progress throughout their lives they become the living legacy she has created.”
