Published: August 1, 2000

Heaven Sent

The view from Galey Colosimo's office window is one most Catholic school principals can only imagine. The Skaggs Catholic Center, spread out over 57 acres in the Salt Lake City suburb of Draper, boasts 75 classrooms, a 1,350- seat auditorium, equestrian trails, a television studio, a day-care center, and the largest hardwood gym floor in the state. Statues of saints dot the campus, and a one-hundred-foot cross rises from a courtyard.

If that isn't enough to command attention, this spanking new showpiece for Roman Catholic education has taken root in the most unlikely of locations: a growing, middle-class town just 30 miles south of Mormon Church headquarters in Salt Lake City.

"This is a one-of-a-kind facility for Catholic education," says Colosimo, the school's principal. "People for many years have paid a lot of money to go to Catholic schools that look like they are ready to burn down. There is something inside those schools that is unique and hard to turn away from. Here, we have the best in facilities and people. That...