| 11/20/2009 5:12:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | Consultations underway at seven parish elementary schools in Maryland
Due to enrollment and financial challenges
RICHARD SZCZEPANOWSKI
Catholic Standard staff
Consultations are being held at seven parish elementary schools in Maryland to discuss enrollment and financial difficulties those schools are facing and to help find solutions, according to the archdiocesan secretary for education.
The seven schools are St. Hugh of Grenoble School in Greenbelt; St. Jerome School in Hyattsville; St. Mark the Evangelist School in Hyattsville; St. Michael School in Ridge; St. Michael the Archangel School in Silver Spring; St. Jude School in Rockville; and St. Catherine Labour School in Wheaton.
The consultations were initiated by the local parishes.
Most of these seven schools have seen a dramatic decrease in their enrollments over the years, which has severely impacted their financial health.
"These consultations are being held by parish and school leaders so their communities have information about challenges facing their schools, usually enrollment and finances, and so they can be part of the solution," said Thomas Burnford, archdiocesan secretary for education.
Patricia Weitzel-O'Neill, the superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of Washington, said that the consultations held in the parishes allow the archdiocese and the school and parish community "to enter into a consultative process where we communicate challenges, and we work together with the pastor to overcome them."
St. Hugh of Grenoble began meeting in spring 2009. Other schools began in October, and further consultations have continued through mid-November. Burnford said that the schools holding consultations "generally face very significant deficits this year - in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Some have exhausted parish savings in support of their school. Some are facing critically low enrollments, in part due to the economy as families have had to make some tough personal financial decisions."
ST. HUGH OF GRENOBLE SCHOOL, GREENBELT
St. Hugh of Grenoble School in Greenbelt has a declining enrollment, from 243 students seven years ago to 129 this year. The school ended last year with a deficit of $82,425. Last year, the school also was in consultations and made a concerted effort to increase its enrollment. However, the school lost another 36 students and has a projected deficit this year of $284,987.
Over the past five years, St. Hugh Parish has provided $253,704 in tuition assistance and support to the school, and the archdiocese has provided $35,025. This year, the archdiocese will contribute an additional $16,000 in need-based tuition assistance to students there.
ST. JEROME SCHOOL, HYATTSVILLE
At St. Jerome School in Hyattsville, the number of students has declined from a high of 530 students eight years ago (2001-2002) to 354 students last year and 297 this year. The school ended last year with a deficit of $117,469. With an enrollment of 297 students and assuming the parish meets a donation and fundraising goal of $170,000 this year, it will break even.
Over the past three years, St. Jerome Parish has contributed $570,426 to the school, while the archdiocese has provided direct support and tuition assistance totaling $104,480. As a result of the school's annual deficits, the parish has taken on debt of more than $495,000.
ST. MARK THE EVANGELIST SCHOOL, HYATTSVILLE
St. Mark the Evangelist School in Hyattsville, along with the parish, has worked very hard to maintain enrollment, but has seen a decline over the past five years from a high of 512 students enrolled in 2004-05 to 290 students last year to a current enrollment of 263. The school last year ended with a deficit of $101,602.
With an enrollment of 263 students and assuming the parish and school meet their donations and fundraising goal of $133,000, there is a projected deficit of $125,670 this year.
The actual cost of educating a child at St. Mark's School this year is $7,212, but the in-parish tuition is only $4,840; this gap requires significant additional sources of revenue. Over the past five years, the parish has contributed $251,452 while the archdiocese has provided direct support and tuition assistance of $121,325. Total debt for St. Mark Parish is currently $250,000.
C. Matthew Russell, principal of St. Mark's School, said that about 150 to 200 people from the parish and school community attended its consultation two weeks ago.
"We laid out in a clear and honest way the financial difficulties we are facing as a school and parish and asked everybody to come together to come up with ideas on how to overcome this situation," Russell said. "We've cataloged and processed the suggestions and have chosen the most productive ideas that will help us to move onward...."
Russell said that the parish held an additional meeting to get school parents and parishioners involved in implementing those ideas. He added that since the consultation, the school has seen widespread support from parents, parishioners, alumni and the community.
"This has allowed the parish and school to come together in a much more cohesive way and to strengthen the bonds between the two. We have come together, and we are moving forward together," Russell said.
ST. MICHAEL SCHOOL, RIDGE
St. Michael School in Ridge last December held a meeting to address the financial and enrollment challenges it faced, and the community rallied to raise approximately $300,000 for this year. Of the $300,000 reserve, $186,007 was used to cover expenses last year and even then the deficit at the end of the year was $324,478. At the beginning of this fiscal year, on July 1, there was $149,966 available, but with the cost of starting the school year, the parish cash on hand was down to $53,100 by Sept. 30.
The parish sought and received $275,000 in subsidy from the archdiocese to cover last year's deficit, which was in addition to the $75,450 the archdiocese provided in tuition assistance.
Enrollment at St. Michael's has increased by 9 percent to 158 students this year. This increase in tuition revenue combined with staff changes has resulted in cost savings. These shifts, along with the $126,783 in reserves, a projected $62,000 in other donations and a projected $70,000 from other fundraising efforts, would leave the school with a deficit of $143,320 this year.
Over the past five years, the parish has contributed $500,649 to the school, and the archdiocese has provided direct support and tuition assistance totaling $1.21 million. That means every year, St. Michael's received 20 percent of the entire school fund available for all schools in the archdiocese.
"The archdiocese has an education fund that supports schools across the entire archdiocese," said Thom Duffy, chief financial officer for the archdiocese. "Over this period, an average of roughly 20 percent of that fund went to support accessible and affordable Catholic education for students in the southern-most school in the archdiocese."
ST. MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL SCHOOL, SILVER SPRING
St. Michael the Archangel School in Silver Spring has seen its enrollment decline over the past decade from a high of 307 students in 2000-2001 to 198 students last year and 191 students this year.
The school ended last year with a deficit of $330,604, which was higher than anticipated. Although it has undertaken cost-cutting measures in this year's budget, with an enrollment of 191 students, the school's projected budget deficit will be $173,538. This is despite anticipated fundraising of $75,000. Over the past two years, the parish has contributed $409,565 to the school, and the archdiocese has provided direct support and tuition assistance totaling $138,301.
ST. JUDE SCHOOL, ROCKVILLE
The enrollment at St. Jude School in Rockville has steadily declined this decade from 536 in 2000-2001. Over the last few years, the school has been transitioning from two classes per grade to one class per grade. Last year, there were 318 students and the school dropped down to 279 for the current school year.
The operating deficit for the 2009 fiscal year, covered by the parish, was $453,830, and the parish is projected to have to cover a $200,267 loss for fiscal year 2010.
Archdiocesan tuition assistance to St. Jude's students was $30,375 for fiscal year 2009 and is projected to be $50,300 for fiscal year 2010. St. Jude's Parish has an endowment of more than $1 million that helps support the school.
ST. CATHERINE LABOUR SCHOOL, WHEATON
St. Catherine Labour School in Wheaton this year has an enrollment of 235 students, about the same as last year. The school had an enrollment of 516 students in 2000-2001 and went from two classes per grade to one class per grade in recent years. The school's 2009 fiscal year operating deficit covered by the parish was $314,867, and it is projected to be $401,242 for the 2010 fiscal year. In the 2009 fiscal year, the archdiocese provided the school with $70,975 in tuition assistance and other financial support. In the 2010 fiscal year, the archdiocese is projected to provide the school with a total of $60,400 in tuition assistance and other financial support.
"It is healthy to bring these issues to the fore and discuss them," said Father Michael Salah, pastor of St. Catherine Labour Parish. "As we discuss the issues we face, we can put our minds and different talents together to come up with a solution to ensure the future of Catholic education."
Burnford noted that the consultations are being held at the seven schools in accordance with the archdiocese's new Policies for Catholic Schools that outline how schools address their Catholic identity, governance, academic excellence and their affordability and accessibility. They also call for expanded communications with parish and school communities, including finances.
"All archdiocesan schools experiencing serious financial or enrollment stress shall collaborate with the Archdiocese of Washington staff to provide additional communications and consultations with the parish and school community," the policy notes.
"The goal of the policies is to encourage schools to identify and address enrollment or financial challenges early on," Burnford said. As a result, he added, "a lot of schools are choosing to enter into a consultative process earlier than (they have) in past years, as soon as they see challenges so they can get a step up on addressing the problems."
"School policies encourage consultation early enough so that communities have sufficient time to plan," he added. "The policy is designed to clearly help parishes and schools address the challenges they face in a timely manner."
The policies call for consultations when "potentially unsustainable economic conditions represent challenges to the viability of an archdiocesan school."
Those challenges include when a loan is required to sustain school operations; an excess of 35 percent of parish revenue in any given year is required to support the school deficit; tuition revenue including all tuition assistance income fails to cover a minimum of 65 percent of the total expense of the school; enrollment falls below 65 percent of the school's capacity given the number of classes per grade that are currently offered; or net proceeds from fundraising falls below five percent of total school expenses.
Burnford said that as schools hold their consultations, "the communities generally work hard to raise funds to cover their deficits; they work to build enrollment; often planning and development committees will be formed from the school advisory board; and in some cases, we see parishes looking at alternative models, including the forming of regional schools."
"All parents and parishioners, along with members of advisory bodies, faculty and staff, are invited to attend the consultations and gather as a community with their pastor and principal to talk about the facts and figures, the strengths of the school and the challenges they face and what needs to be done," he said.
As schools meet the challenges they face, the Archdiocese of Washington has dramatically increased the amount of tuition aid it is offering Catholic schools. Earlier, the archdiocese said it would double tuition aid for the 2009-2010 school year to nearly $4 million. That is double the amount that was offered during last year, and almost five times as much as was offered in the 2007-08 school year.
Before, funds were made available to a handful of schools for late-year operational subsidies, which did nothing to increase enrollment.
Now, by shifting funds from buildings to families, enrollment in the schools can be stabilized and tuition revenue increased. "We have moved from subsidizing schools to providing significantly more tuition assistance to families," Burnford said. "This is a much more effective way of supporting Catholic schools."
He added that "the archdiocese has significantly increased tuition assistance to Catholic schools to keep them affordable. Through our new policies, and through tuition assistance policies, we can more equitably distribute the cost of Catholic education across the entire archdiocese."
Separately, the archdiocese announced in recent weeks that it needs to cut nearly $2 million in spending for next year, due to an accumulation of factors, including the recent financial downturn and the use of nearly all of its financial reserves over the past decade to support struggling parishes, schools and agencies.
|
Article Comment Submission Form
|
| VATICAN | CATHOLIC RESOURCES | Parishes of the Archdiocese
