After 83 years as a girls school, Saint Francis School in Manoa has made the decision to go co-educational in the fall with the introduction of a coed kindergarten of 18 to 20 children.

In making the decision to add boys to the school, headmistress Sister Joan of Arc Souza said, "It's time — males are half the population.

"It's the 21st century and we need to meet the needs of the church in today's world."

Souza said that when she announced the decision to the student body "they cheered.

"And when I said kindergarten, they moaned."

The small Catholic school in Manoa, with an enrollment of 426, has a preschool that enrolls boys, Souza said, and parents have been concerned about where their youngsters will continue.

"We also want to start with the little ones so we can continue to educate our teachers that boys and girls learn differently," Souza said.

Boys will move into the higher grades a year at a time as the kindergarten class advances and a new one is enrolled.

At the same time, the school has decided against moving to Kapolei, another change that was considered.

While the 1970s saw a trend toward single-gender schools going coeducational, Mike Baker, chairman of the board of the Hawai'i Association of Independent Schools, said that single-gender schools continue to play a role in the educational framework. There are a handful of such campuses among Hawai'i's many private schools.

"When schools across the country were going coed, the general tenor of that was there are many more things alike than different in the development of girls and boys," Baker said. "It's a coed world and I think the interaction of young men and women is very healthy in the educational scene.

"But in the realm of choice there's still a strong place for single-gender schools. It's one more option for parents. One more choice."

Nancy White, head of La Pietra-Hawai'i School for Girls, is one who continues to see that an all-girls school is a powerful choice for the education of young women.

"The education of girls is our niche, and we're very proud of what we do, and we have no plan to go coed or start an elementary school," White said. "We have parents who really like what we do and wish there was a La Pietra for boys. They just want us to have a duplicate."

White said an all-girls school offers girls the chance to assume all leadership roles in the school and avoid the "distraction" of the opposite sex.

Saint Francis has not yet decided on an educational philosophy for the junior school but is looking closely at what's in use at Hanahau'oli where multiple grades learn together, giving the opportunity for mentoring of young ones by older children.

"We'll choose one philosophy that best fits the children we have," Souza said.

The Saint Francis preschool uses that technique, putting 2-, 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds together in two classrooms, and has seen positive results.

"A 5-year-old will take a 3-year-old and show them how to learn from the computer," Souza said.

Parent Paul Stoycheff, who chose the school for both his daughters, said he doesn't have any problem with the school going coed.

"The main reason I'm sending them there is because it's faith-based and more structured and their academic standards are a lot higher," said Stoycheff, who doesn't expect that to change.

Students also support the decision, although Stoycheff's 15-year-old daughter, Canada, who transferred from a public high school in Pearl City, admits "it's easier to focus without boys" and said her grades have improved, which is what her parents hoped.

But she also said having boys on campus would give the school more balance.

"There's a lot of drama at an all-girls school," she said. "A lot of gossiping."

And when the girls see a boy walking across campus "they go nuts. ... They jump up and down and point," she said.

Freshman Shasta Nakamura was also happy.

"They should do it right now," she said. "Boys light up the classroom with jokes. ... We won't be here to enjoy it."

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com.