LOS ANGELES -- When the time came to select her daughter's elementary school, Inglewood, California, resident Nichole Celistan searched for a campus that fostered community, a school where her child would thrive.
Class size, quality instruction and extracurricular activities were important. But more than a year into the pandemic that upended education, Celistan, who was raised Baptist and considers herself non-religious, turned in a direction she hadn't expected. In 2021, her daughter Akira started first grade at St. Eugene Catholic school in South Los Angeles.
"When I researched local public and private schools, I of course checked the academics and test scores, but I also asked about the campus community," Celistan said. "I just didn't want my daughter to attend school but to feel welcomed, to grow spiritually and to develop special bonds that were broken during the pandemic."
