For almost a century, Malden Catholic has carried forward the Xaverian Brothers' educational tradition: to form young people as faith-filled leaders, to educate the whole student, and to nurture the unique gifts each young man and woman brings to our community. That mission has guided us since 1932, through the growth of our academic programs, the introduction of our codivisional model, the opening of our new, cutting-edge academics and athletics building, and our ongoing work to build leaders who serve their communities locally and around the world.

This fall, we are taking an important step to extend that mission to more students, earlier in their formation. Beginning with the 2027 fall semester, Malden Catholic will add a sixth grade, completing our Ryken Middle School Division, alongside our existing seventh and eighth grades. The division, named for Xaverian Brothers founder Theodore James Ryken, was created to meet the academic, intellectual, and emotional needs of middle school students and prepare them well for high school at Malden Catholic.

We created the Ryken Division in response to increasing demand from families. Over the past several years, we have heard from a growing number of families who want their children to experience Malden Catholic's approach to academics, character building, and community that make up our distinct preparatory experience as early as possible. Adding sixth grade is our answer to that demand, and it reflects something the Xaverian call to respond faithfully to the needs of the times.

But this is about more than responding to demand. It is about deepening what we do best. A sixth grade at Malden Catholic gives us more opportunity to build the rigorous academic foundation our students need to enter high school on the strongest possible footing. Just as importantly, it provides more time to cultivate the values at the heart of a Xaverian education: simplicity, humility, compassion, trust, and zeal. These are not abstractions to us. They are the habits of heart and mind that make up the portrait of the Malden Catholic graduate that we work to instill in every student.

An additional year in our middle school also provides our students more time to grow in faith and discover their own God-given gifts. Theodore James Ryken believed that the gifts we receive are meant to be given away in service to others. That belief shapes everything we do at Malden Catholic and starting that formation a year earlier allows our students to discover their gifts and learn what it means to put them in service to others earlier in their development.

Our new sixth graders will join their seventh- and eighth-grade classmates in our state-of-the-art building at 50 Crystal Street, home to advanced classrooms for biomedical engineering, entrepreneurship, and robotics, and new athletic facilities including the 32,000-square-foot Donovan Fieldhouse. They will also experience our co-divisional model, in which boys and girls learn in separate classrooms while coming together through social, extracurricular, and campus life, allowing each student to grow with the support and focus they need while building the friendships and shared experiences that make a school community whole.

Since 1932, Malden Catholic has produced scholars and leaders who go on to serve their communities near and far. Our curriculum is designed to strengthen growth mindset, leadership, and academic achievement, and we are proud of the reputation we have built for rigorous coursework, our SFX Scholars Program, and an award-winning STEM curriculum. Adding a sixth grade does not change that mission; instead, it extends it, giving more young people the chance to be formed by it.

We look forward to welcoming our first sixth grade class in the fall of 2027, and to continuing a tradition of Catholic, Xaverian education that has served the young people of Greater Boston for nearly a hundred years.

John K. Thornburg is the president of Malden Catholic School in Malden. Under President Thornburg's leadership, Malden Catholic opened its new, cutting-edge campus building at 50 Crystal Street and added grades six, seven, and eight to its secondary school program, providing middle school-aged students access to the school's highly regarded Xaverian Brothers preparatory academic model.

An educator for more than four decades, Thornburg began his journey as a biology teacher and cross-country coach at St. John's Northwestern, a premier boarding leadership school in Delafield, Wisc. After 20 years in the classroom, he moved into administration and served St. John's Northwestern as the academic dean and associate head of school. He furthered his administrative experience, leading the high school division of the Summit Country Day School, a leading Catholic school in the Cincinnati area from 2015 to 2019.

Thornburg earned his BS from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, an MS from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in science teaching, and an MA from Marian University-Fond du Lac in educational leadership.