The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh yesterday said increased recruitment and financial aid opportunities fueled a fourth consecutive year of enrollment growth at 12 Catholic high schools.

High school enrollment reached 4,300 this school year, 115 more than in 2007-08 and the highest number in more than a decade, diocesan officials said at their annual news conference on the state of diocesan schools.

"We haven't seen these numbers since the mid 1990s," said Robert L. Paserba, superintendent of schools, noting enrollment at the 12 schools five years ago was 3,800.

Bishop Canevin High School in Westwood has a particularly healthy freshman class of 150, said the Rev. Kris D. Stubna, diocesan secretary for education.

Dr. Paserba said high school enrollment has been helped by the state's Educational Improvement Tax Credit, which gives businesses an incentive to donate to tax-exempt organizations such as the diocese's Scholastic Opportunity Scholarship program. For 2008-09, the program yielded about $3 million for scholarships, with individual awards ranging from $100 to $2,500.

Overall, the diocese projects an enrollment of about 25,000 students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. While class sizes at elementary schools remain in flux, the final figure may be down about 2.5 percent from last school year, Dr. Paserba said.

For a family with one child enrolled, average tuition is $7,000 at the high schools and $3,000 at the elementary schools. That's $200 and $100 higher, respectively, than in 2007-08.

The diocese has about 100 elementary schools and early-childhood centers, which are operated by parishes, consortia or private groups. It operates seven high schools directly, and the other five are operated by parishes and religious groups.

Like the Pittsburgh Public Schools and other urban districts, the diocese continues to lose students at many of its city schools.

It closed three schools across the six-county diocese within the past school year and merged two others, Nativity in South Park and St. Germaine in Bethel Park, to create St. Katharine Drexel in Bethel Park.

While there are "no immediate crises," officials will monitor other schools with small enrollments to make sure they stay viable, Father Stubna said.

The diocese touted St. Kilian, its first new school in 44 years, which opened with pre-kindergarten and kindergarten last school year and added grades one through four this school year.

The Cranberry school, which enrolls about 500 students in a new building, will add grades five through eight in coming years.

About 88 percent of diocesan students are Catholic, and about 10 percent are minorities. Father Stubna noted that some of the diocese's city schools have a predominately minority enrollment.

The diocese has about 2,000 teachers and principals, with fewer than 100 of them nuns, brothers and priests. Father Stubna said the gradual switch to lay teachers has increased costs and tuition.

The diocese yesterday highlighted a number of scholarship programs designed to make Catholic education more affordable. Besides the tax credit program, officials said, donors and foundations have made scholarships available to needy elementary and high school students.

The diocese has asked officials of the Pittsburgh Promise to extend the college scholarship program to graduates of the city's Catholic high schools.

The program, funded primarily by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, was established to boost enrollment in the Pittsburgh Public Schools and draw residents to the city.

In a statement, the Promise's executive director, Saleem Ghubril, said only that "the door remains open for further conversation."