Rev. John Raphael is the incoming president of St. Augustine, an African-American boys' Catholic high school in New Orleans. Raphael has served as the principal for the past 5 years. (Imani M. Cheers/NYT Institute)

The halls are empty at St. Augustine High School on this spring day in May, except for administrative staff and the Rev. John J. Raphael , the new president of this prestigious Catholic school for boys in New Orleans.

The first alumnus to be named president of the school, Raphael, possibly more than anyone, understands the challenges the school faces. It is located in A.P. Tureaud Terrace, a community still reeling from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The school had more than $4 million in damages. Its second floor remained intact and served as a shelter for the surrounding community.

But the storm is over now and Raphael wants to get to the business of turning boys into men.

“Like every institution, especially the ones here in New Orleans, it was an opportunity,” said Raphael of rebuilding the school. “Either you’re going to fold because of the storm or you’re going to limp back or you’re going to take advantage of it as an opportunity to regroup and redeploy. And that’s what we decided to do.”

A native of New Orleans, Raphael was a 1985 graduate of St. Augustine, which serves boys in grades seven through 12. Established in 1951 to educate economically disadvantaged African-American boys, it is the leading secondary school for African-American males in Louisiana. The institution is steeped in history. In 1967, St. Augustine launched a legal challenge that resulted in the desegregation of high school athletics in the state and was the first African-American high school band to march in the Rex parade at Mardi Gras.

Raphael played saxophone when he attended St. Augustine.

“The expectations were very high for us,” he recalled.

He said the school taught him about hard work and academic discipline. It also gave him confidence. He wants to instill those same values in the 636 boys at St. Augustine now.

“Kids come to school with more home-based issues that cannot be ignored in a school and have to be addressed in a school,” said Raphael. “In my generation, St. Aug took over where our parents left off. We have so many kids who don’t have a male role model in their life,” and “who are not accustomed to male authority figures.”

Raphael left New Orleans to attend the University of Notre Dame, where he majored in philosophy. In 1995 he was ordained a priest and after stints in Texas and Washington, D.C., returned to New Orleans in 2004 to become assistant principal of St. Augustine. He was named acting principal in 2006 and earlier this month was named the third president of St. Augustine. His goal is to raise money for endowed scholarships. The private school costs about $7,200 a year for high school students, which includes tuition and other fees .

Raphael hopes to rally the purple pride of all 7,000 alumni into dollar green.

“Our alumni are strong in spirit, love, devotion, but the purple and gold must go green and I’m not necessarily talking about the environment,” he said. “We have to come into institution maturity.”

Donald Neveu teaches computer applications and Web design at St. Augustine, his alma mater. He left his 15-year career in the banking industry to teach at the school. The school’s faculty includes a number of alumni, including one from its first graduating class of 1955.

“I teach here because I want to give back to the community,” said Nevue, a 1992 alumnus of St. Augustine. “I want to give back to the school that gave me a start.”

It’s this type of commitment that made Veneta Mays enroll her son, Basil, in St. Augustine after Hurricane Katrina.

“I felt this was the best place for him to get an education,” Mays said. Her son, who graduated from St. Augustine this year, will be attending the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in the fall.

Some parents believe that St. Augustine offers more than athletics and academics.

Police officer Melvin Hunter is one. He came to the school Friday to pick up the report card for his 15-year-old son, Melvin II. He didn’t pass theology.

“The reason I sent him here is because he needed positive black men in his life,” Hunter said. “I’m happy with the results. I’m happy with the discipline. Being a policeman, I see what’s out there.”

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