About

HISTORY

For more than 50 years…

NativityMiguel schools have uniquely impacted communities across the country by providing a quality, faith-based education for students from low-income families. The Jesuits founded the first school, Nativity Mission Center, in 1971 in the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. Following the Nativity model, similar schools were established by the Sisters of the Holy Child, the Christian Brothers Network (San Miguel Schools), and the Episcopalian Association of Schools in New York, Boston, Chicago, St. Louis, and California.

In the early 2000s, with over 50 NativityMiguel-modeled schools, leaders gathered to create a formal network to support the unique needs of NativityMiguel schools. By combining the Nativity and San Miguel names, the NativityMiguel Network was born.

Then, in the spring of 2012, the NativityMiguel Network unfortunately dissolved, leaving the schools without a meaningful and formal association with other mission-aligned schools and like-minded leaders. As a result, NativityMiguel school leaders again gathered and re-formed the organization with a new name, the NativityMiguel Coalition, and a new structure driven by the member schools.

Believing in being stronger together, 35 schools across the nation reinvented the NativityMiguel organization so that they may thrive in the education of America’s urban, underserved children as a mission-aligned force. The Coalition formally launched in August 2014, with 35 schools signing a membership agreement and paying a membership fee.

The NativityMiguel Coalition has grown to 50 member schools across the country and Canada. School leaders believe our schools are stronger to manage better the unique challenges of our educational mission and model. The Coalition was structured and staffed for a singular purpose: learning how schools respond to the unique challenges and sharing these learnings with all member schools.