St. Thomas More Preparatory School and Salesianum School and have been named two of the country’s 50 best Catholic high schools by the Catholic High School Honor Roll. St. Thomas More made the list for the first time, while this was the second straight year Salesianum has been honored and the school’s third such designation since the list’s inception in 2004. David McKenzie, the principal at St. Thomas More, said the honor was a big deal on the Magnolia campus. “To be listed with a school like Sallies ... just says volumes about the faculty and the previous administrations,” he said. McKenzie said being listed on the honor roll will help St. Thomas More, which opened in 1998-99, promote its academic quality and its Catholic identity.

The school held an assembly Nov. 10 to announce the achievement. A number of the people who had helped get St. Thomas More off the ground were there. “They were quite emotional,” McKenzie said. Enrollment this year is 220, up 10 percent over last year even as other Catholic schools face decreases because of economic realities. “We’re very grateful,” McKenzie said. “As the whole image of the school is accepted by the community, people are willing to make sacrifices.”

Salesianum celebrated the honor at a school assembly Nov. 12 featuring Msgr. Joseph Rebman, vicar general for pastoral services for the diocese, and Father James Greenfield, provincial of the Wilmington/Philadelphia Province of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, who own and staff Salesianum. The Catholic High School Honor Roll evaluates schools on the basis of academics, Catholic identity and civic education. All Catholic schools are eligible to apply. Representatives of participating schools complete three surveys that the Catholic High School Honor Roll uses to calculate each school’s score. No visits are made to the schools.