February 21, 2009
Bishop announces regional school in south Sacramento
By Julie Sly
Herald editor
Principal Sharon Vroman, second from left, of St. Anne School in Sacramento, and first grade teacher Tess Kawamura, right, work with first graders, left to right, Elvia Sanchez, Mele Fetu’u and Michael McKinney. St. Anne School is one of two Sacramento Catholic elementary schools that will close in June 2010. Cathy Joyce/Herald photo
Hoping to address declining enrollment and financial problems in two south
Sacramento area schools, Bishop Jaime Soto has announced a plan to consolidate
St. Anne and St. Patrick Schools into a new regional school beginning in
2010 on the existing St. Patrick campus.
The bishop spoke about the new plan during a Feb. 11 luncheon for about 120 donors and friends of Sacramento Urban Catholic Children’s Equal Education Development (SUCCEED) who gathered at St. Anthony Parish in Sacramento.
St. Anne School, located at 7720 24th St., and St. Patrick School, located at 5945 Franklin Blvd., are two of five urban elementary schools of SUCCEED, which also includes John Paul II School and St. Joseph School in Sacramento and Holy Cross School in West Sacramento. All five schools have experienced significant economic and demographic shifts since SUCCEED was formed more than two decades ago.
The enrollment at St. Anne has declined from 221 students 10 years ago to 92 students for the current academic year. St. Patrick’s has experienced a decrease in students from 379 a decade ago to 109 this year.
The new regional school yet to be named will work closely with the local parish communities of St. Anne and St. Patrick (St. Rose), Bishop Soto said. While both schools will remain open for the academic year 2009-10, the schools will both close in June 2010. The regional school will open in 2010-11.
During 2009-10, the diocese, with the cooperation of pastors of St. Anne and St. Rose, will govern the schools, the bishop said. A board of directors, appointed by Bishop Soto, will eventually supervise the administration of both schools and the regional school. The board will include members of both parish communities.
The bishop said that approximately $2 million would be invested to retool and upgrade the campus at St. Patrick School for the new regional school. New outreach efforts to recruit current students and new students for the school will also be initiated, he said.
“We will be aggressive in terms of identifying donors and resources to make this happen,” Bishop Soto said. “I’ll be having conversations with many in the Catholic community, because people believe in Catholic schools. If we present a compelling vision of what we want to do, I’m convinced that people will support it.”
“I don’t want to create a high quality school for the elite,” he added. “We need to build a system that will be affordable, accessible and attractive to all Catholic families.”
The bishop’s announcement came as a result of recommendations from a 10-member ad hoc committee made up of business leaders, educators and diocesan staff, which has been working since July 2008 on a plan to stabilize Catholic elementary schools in the diocese. The committee’s first task was to review schools most at risk.
The committee is also charged in the coming months with recommending a plan for ensuring the future financing of schools, for aggressive marketing and admissions, and to ensure ongoing recruitment and development of future school leaders.
The bishop noted that over the past four decades, students in Sacramento’s urban Catholic schools have been significantly impacted by dramatic demographic and staffing shifts. More affluent families moved to the suburbs, and Catholic schools, previously staffed by religious communities of sisters, hired predominantly lay staff at higher salaries.
While this was a nationwide trend, the result was that “children from families who desired the chance for a Catholic education were being left with no choice,” the bishop said.
SUCCEED was formed 24 years ago as a partial response to this trend in the Sacramento Diocese, he said, to maintain a financial base that assured the viability of the remaining urban Catholic schools. Since 1985, proceeds from the SUCCEED annual gala dinner have provided ongoing tuition assistance to students at SUCCEED schools.
While the SUCCEED endowment had reached over $5 million prior to the recent stock market downturn, “demand for need-based support in SUCCEED schools is far greater than the revenue produced in interest,” Bishop Soto said. He added that the current state of the economy has “created a greater uncertainty for everyone, coupled with a diminished endowment, making even more of a challenge.”
Catholic schools “face today a challenge as great as the one faced in the 1970s,” the bishop told school principals, staff and donors. “In spite of these challenges, I remain hopeful and confident in our ability to rise to the occasion.”
The bishop said that beginning with the 2010 Annual Catholic Appeal, he will recommend inclusion of Catholic education as a component. Based on projections for the continued growth of the appeal, he said, this will result in significant additional financial support for SUCCEED and other Catholic schools and religious education efforts.
Catholic elementary school enrollment in the diocese has declined continuously for the past 10 years. Enrollment peaked at 13,662 in 1995, while this year’s enrollment is 9,963. Tuition at a Catholic elementary school in the diocese averages $3,800 annually.
The diocese currently has three two-parish elementary schools, 39 single parish elementary schools and one parish elementary school for grades 7 and 8.
When St. Anne and St. Patrick Schools close in 2010, they will be the latest schools in the diocese to close in recent years. Since 2004, declining enrollments and financial problems have caused four schools to shut their doors.
In June 2005, All Hallows and St. Peter Schools in Sacramento closed and merged into a new school named John Paul II, located on the previous site of All Hallows, and St. Thomas More School in Paradise also closed. In June 2007, St. Lawrence School in North Highlands shut its doors and in June 2008, Notre Dame School in Marysville joined the list of closures.
