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Fast Facts About St. Michael
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- St. Michael was founded in 2016 by the Archdiocese of Mobile. For the 2022-23 school year, enrollment is 354 students.
- In 2022-23, the student body hails from 17 zip codes. 82% are Catholic and 14% are students of color.
- St. Michael is fully accredited by SACS/Advanced Ed/Cognia.
- St. Michael requires four years of Math, Science, English, Theology and History, together with two years of foreign language and two years of the arts. Students earn 32 credits over the course of their four years with St. Michael, compared with 24-26 credits elsewhere. As one parent put it, "It's like getting an extra year of high school in preparation for college and the ACT test."
- The daily schedule is unique: Students attend 8 classes on Mondays, but only 6 per day the rest of the week, with two classes rotating out each day. Thus every class meets 4 times/week. The intent our schedule is two fold: to help students balance the homework load, even while giving them room to take extra electives in the arts, in foreign language and (if an athlete), weightlifting and conditioning without making "either-or" decisions. This is part of our "Renaissance man or woman" vision we have for each student here.
- The school day begins at 7:45 each morning, and ends at 3:04 on Mondays through Thursday and 2:45 on Fridays. Teachers are available to give students extra help from 3:10 p.m. until 4 p.m. in "tutorials" on Tuesday through Thursday. No practices may begin until 4 p.m. on those days. Mondays are club or team days after school, beginning at 3:15.
- St. Michael is a college preparatory school, with two academic levels, depending on a student's ability, previous training and work ethic: a "Collegiate Studies" level and an " Honors/A.P. " level. There is no third tier or remedial track.
- St. Michael supports students with documented learning differences by offering an "Aegis" class as one of their eight classes/year, though all students are expected to work hard and succeed in the "Collegiate Studies" program.
- Students in the honors track may take up to 9 "Advanced Placement" classes during their tenure, including A.P. Physics, A.P. Calculus, A.P. Government, A.P. U.S. History, A.P. Geography, A.P. English Composition, A.P. English Literature, A.P. Spanish and A.P. Psychology.
- In 2022, 50 students were designated as "A.P. Scholars" by the College Board on the basis of their A.P. exam results. Of these, 18 were awarded "AP Scholars with Distinction," the highest honor possible. 5 received "AP Scholars with Honor" recognition, and 27 were named "AP Scholars." In 2021, 49 students from the school were recognized as "A.P. Scholars."
- The class of 2022 received over 5.2 million dollars in scholarship offers.
- The top decile of the Class of 2022 has an average A.C.T. score of a 32. Its average ACT score is 25. As a diocesan Catholic school, St. Michael does not "skim" its applicant pool, but accepts a great diversity of academic talent.
- On the 2022 National Language Exams, 58 students from St. Michael earned medals for exceptional performance-- 11 gold medals, 23 silver medals, and 21 bronze medals. 64 additional students received "honorable mention."
- In 2022, our choral program rated "superior" in state competition in performance. Our band rated "excellent" in performance and "superior" in sight- reading.
- Of the 33 professional staff, 80% have advanced degrees. 29 are Roman Catholic. The average # of years experience as a teacher is approximately 15 years.
- At new student orientation, every student and teacher is "sorted" into one of four "Houses," each named after an early bishop of the (Arch)diocese of Mobile. The Houses are "Portier," "Quinlan," "O'Sullivan" and "Allen." The purpose of the Houses is to provide an additional layer of friendship, community and fun among the students and teachers, even as each House competes against the others for the annual "House Cup" via games, charitable drives and academic contests.
- The Cardinal athletic program currently offers 20 varsity sports, playing at the 4A level in the Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA): Football, Volleyball, Cheerleading, Cross Country (Men and Women), Basketball (M, W), Baseball, Soccer (M, W), Swimming (M, W), Bowling (M, W), Golf (M), Softball, Track ((M, W), Softball and Tennis (M, W). There are JV teams in Volleyball, Basketball, and Soccer. We sponsor middle school programs in football and volleyball for our three elementary schools (Christ the King, St. Patrick and St. Benedict).
- Our boys' cross country team won the school's first state championship in November, 2019. Our boys' swim team finished state runners-up in the spring of 2020. Our cheerleading program won the state championship in the spring of 2021 and were runners-up in 2022.