CATHOLIC SCHOOLS CONTINUE TO REORGANIZE AND ADAPT TO CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS  

            For more than 175 years, beginning with the single small academy opened in 1828 by a group of Nuns of Saint Clare on the North Side, Catholic education has been a continuing presence in the diocese.  Today, the Department for Catholic Schools oversees one of the largest systems in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania , with more than 100 schools in the six-county area, consisting of approximately 24,000 students in grades prek-12 and nearly 2000 professional educators.

            Over the past 20 years, the diocese has engaged in parish reorganization, reflecting the population shifts that have occurred, the growth of suburban areas, the shrinking of the city of Pittsburgh , the changes in local business and industry.  At the same time, the schools have been affected by those changing demographics, with expansion and even building new schools in some growth areas, while others have been closed or consolidated into regional schools as the available school age population dropped.

            Throughout the entire history, the effort has been to provide a faith-filled and academically excellent education to the thousands of students who have attended, while also exercising good stewardship.

            Part of that stewardship has been the implementation of a school financing policy that was introduced in 1995 and phased in over the years. In brief, the policy requires that 60 percent of total school cost is funded from tuition yield, 25 percent from parish subsidy, and 15 percent from fund raising and development and other sources including diocesan subsidy.  This formula recognized the need for a greater portion of the funding burden to fall on tuition and a lessening in parish subsidy so that other necessary ministries could be maintained and parishes would not be operating with deficit budgets.  In particular, major efforts were put in place to increase the amount of tuition assistance available to students, particularly through the Bishop’s Education Fund and the Scholastic Opportunity Scholarship Program.

            In all of the instances where a school closed or was consolidated, students always have had the opportunity to attend another Catholic school.   This year will prove no different, even as some schools will be phasing out their operation.  

This weekend, it was announced that Saint Titus School in Aliquippa, Saint Elizabeth Seton Regional School in the West End, Bishop McDowell Regional School in Baldwin and Saint Valentine School in Bethel Park will close in June at the end of this school year.

The requests to close the schools, after a lengthy consultation process, were made by Father Paul Householder, pastor of Saint Titus Parish ; Father Donald Buchleitner, pastor of Holy Innocents and Guardian Angels parishes; Father James Orr, pastor, Saint Albert the Great Parish , Father Edwin Wichman, administrator, Saint Wendelin Parish , and Father Alan Morris, pastor, Saint Valentine Parish . Permission was granted by Bishop David Zubik to close the schools.  

Two preschool programs will remain in operation as Bishop McDowell Early Childhood Center and Saint Valentine Early Childhood Center.  

At two schools, Saint Titus and Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Regional, the significant financial support for both tuition assistance and deficit funding from a major donor ends in June after a period of many years.  In spite of these efforts, enrollment continues to decline and the financial challenges are substantial.  It has become impossible for the schools to operate with a balanced budget.  

The primary issue at Bishop McDowell Regional School has been the declining enrollment over the past several years, from 137 in 2003-04 down to only 65 students in K-8 this year.  With the declining enrollment, the school finances became extremely difficult to balance.  There are a number of viable Catholic schools available nearby to the families of these students. They will, however, retain a preschool program as the Bishop McDowell Early Childhood Center .  

The pastor of Saint Valentine School, after consulting with his parish advisory councils, made a decision in the spring of 2008 not to join the newly formed Saint Katharine Drexel School.  He had hoped to stabilize enrollment and continue to operate as a single parish school.  Unfortunately, a precipitous drop in enrollment from 164 students in 2005-06 down to 84 and a projected further drop next year with the resulting escalating cost per student have made that vision unaffordable.   The projected tuition rate would go from the current $2800 per student to as much as $5965.   

Families can still choose to enroll their children at Saint Katharine Drexel or enroll in several other nearby Catholic schools. The pastor plans to retain a preschool program and maintain the preschool as the Saint Valentine Early Childhood Center.  

In all of the cases above, families can send their children to other area Catholic schools and efforts are underway to assist them in this process.  In this reorganization, the majority of students will enroll in other nearby Catholic schools and help those schools to increase student enrollments and achieve greater financial stability. In many cases, parents will be paying less in tuition as well.  

Father Kris Stubna, diocesan Secretary for Education said, “Closing any Catholic school with its long tradition of educational excellence in a community is always painful.  We celebrate the tremendous efforts of so many people in keeping these schools viable for so long.  But the changing demographics and declining school-age population make it impossible for these schools to continue.”