Notre Dame Prep 'charges' ahead with solar system

Aug. 7—A school sports cheer is doubly appropriate for Notre Dame Preparatory High School: Charge!

The North Scottsdale private school, which vows to provide "a rigorous Catholic college preparatory education to students," is literally charged up for a new school year. A summer-long construction project that installed a solar system will greet students.

The charged-up infrastructure is a metaphor for the school's electric track record.

While Scottsdale Unified School District and many other public-school districts around the Valley are experiencing declining enrollment, NDP is turning away students.

"We will be just under 1,000 students," Notre Dame Prep President Jill Platt said.

Construction workers are finishing up three new classrooms — not quite enough space for the families that want to be here.

"We had 400 applicants for 250-ish spots," Platt said.

At NDP, founded in 2002, "We have seen an uptick in enrollment each year — but this was the first year that we've had a waitlist," Platt noted.

Though 20 times smaller than SUSD, NDP's enrollment has grown every year:

2019-20: 809 students.

2020-21: 846.

2021-22: 875.

2022-23: 926.

2023-24: Projected 978.

But the small school off Bell Road near the Scottsdale Ice Den has no "power play" plans to become as big as SUSD.

Platt said 1,000 is the cap to how many students NDP plans to educate each year.

The enrollment increase was helped by the Empowerment Scholarship Account, which, according to the Arizona Department of Education, "consists of 90% of the state funding that would have otherwise been allocated to the school district or charter school for the qualified student ..."

ESA funding can be used to pay private school tuition, so Platt noted, NDP families "can offset their tuition by about $7,000."

Even so, that's not even half of the Notre Dame Prep tuition, which runs from around $16,850 for Catholics to $20,000 for non-Catholics — per year.

"We always have scholarships available for needy families," Platt said.. "... we are lucky to have generous donors who commit to scholarships every year."

Open to all

According to its mission statement, "Notre Dame Preparatory is a Diocesan Catholic High School, dedicated to the promotion of academic excellence and the pursuit of holiness through the shared values of Reverence, Respect, and Responsibility, out of love for Jesus Christ."

But the school does not exclude other religions, Platt stressed.

"As a Catholic school, we believe in catholic with a small 'c' — meaning universal," Platt said. "So we always engage our future families with the understanding that we are Catholic school first, but all are welcome."

What about this school is so attractive to families in Scottsdale and around the Valley?

NDP Principal Brie Dragonetti said she hears from families who "are excited for all the different programs that we offer here. We started a med(ical) track for students that we're rolling out. We offer a ton of advanced and honors courses that our students really wanted to be part of.

"These kids are looking to go to the top colleges and so to be at our school and get that faith-based education on top of all of these programs is really what we're hearing from parents."

Dragonetti said small class sizes ensure that students don't get lost in the crowd.

"Another thing that I think just puts us above everybody else is that extra support that our teachers provide for our kids," she added.

Driving students almost from the moment they step foot on the NDP campus to start thinking about college, the school has a strong track record of academics, surpassing national SAT and ACT test scores.

Ninety-seven percent of the NDP Class of 2022 went straight to colleges or universities, including Fordham, Princeton, Harvard and Yale.

Yet the Notre Dame experience is about far more than just homework and prepping for big tests, said George Prelock, NDP's director of exceptional learning.

"We're trying to develop the mind, body and souls of our students," Prelock said.

His particular emphasis is the middle of those three — he's the NDP football coach.

For a small school, the football program has been pretty noteworthy, launching Sean Renfree, who went on to star at Duke University and land as an NFL backup quarterback for a few years.

In 2019, NDP star wide receiver Jake Smith was named Gatorade National Football Player of the Year. After playing at the University of Texas and USC, he is back at home on the ASU roster.

This summer, Prelock was on the speed dial of many college recruiters eager to sign Cooper Perry, a tall, fast, catch-everything receiver who had a brilliant sophomore year, scoring 20 touchdowns.

"He's already up to 18 offers and they're all big-time schools," Perry's coach said with a smile.

With senior quarterback Noah Trigueros — mulling over six Ivy League scholarships offers — ready to again fling the ball to Perry, the fans at Bemis Field (named after beloved coach Scot Bemis, who died of cancer in 2012) will be fired up this fall.

You might even call the atmosphere "charged."