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School could face closure |
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Friday, 19 September 2008 |
By ANDREA POTEET
Staff Writer
WAPAKONETA — St. Joseph Catholic Church Parish officials have begun the process of closing St. Joseph School, a church official says.
The church’s Parish Leaders Group met Aug. 20 to review a report by the parish’s Marketing Committee stating that it had failed to enroll the 70 students it had promised by the beginning of this school year. Based on the Marketing Committee’s report, the Parish Leaders Group recommended the school’s closing to the Cincinnati Archdiocese.
Sixty students are enrolled in kindergarten through seventh grade at St. Joseph School for the 2008-2009 school year.
“Last year, we had a process in place where the Marketing Committee said we would have 70 students enrolled this year with a goal of having 100 by the 2011-2012 school year,” the Rev. Henry “Hank” Abietz said. “That goal was not met.”
For the 2007-08 school year, the school reportedly enrolled 95 students.
Albietz cited a national demographic trend affecting school enrollment.
“We are dealing with a declining birth rate,” Albietz said. “We need to have 25 students to pay for a teacher. We’re lucky to baptize 30 babies a year.”
Albietz said the church is working with Holy Rosary Catholic School in St. Marys, to ensure students who want a Catholic education have a place in the area to go.
Albietz said this school year, St. Joseph teachers have had to increase the amount of periods they teach and one teacher’s contract was not renewed due to low enrollment.
The 10- to 12-member Marketing Committee met monthly and sometimes twice monthly to map out plans to increase enrollment, Committee member Sandra Huffman said.
Marketing Committee members interviewed every family with children in the parish and in neighboring Catholic parishes and distributed signs advertising enrollment in the school.
They also visited neighboring parishes to speak at their Masses regarding the issue, Huffman said.
“It’s disappointing we didn’t get our goal,” Huffman said, “but we’re not in the authority to say it’s closing.”
She said committee members could have accomplished more, were it given more time. The committee was formed after an open parish meeting about the school’s future in December.
“It should have been formed five years ago,” Huffman, who also serves on the Parish Leaders Group, said. “The decisions were made fast and furious, and we felt like we were under the gun.”
She said a report from the Parish Leaders Group to the archdiocese is in the paperwork stages and she does not know how long the process will take.
There is always the possibility that the archdiocese will reject the school’s closing or that its decision will not be completed by the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year, she said.
It is unlikely the school can stay open without an increase in enrollment, she said.
A letter was sent home to parents of enrolled students two weeks ago notifying parents that the school may close.
St. Joseph Catholic School Principal Ron Fahncke said Tuesday nothing had been determined for the future of the school following the end of this school year.
“For the year after next year, that has really not been determined yet,” Fahncke said. |
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Last Updated ( Monday, 22 September 2008 )
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