ARTICLES

Petersburg school struggles to remain open

By Steve Neill
of The Catholic Virginian

A committee of parents and administration of St. Joseph’s School in Petersburg has been asked to submit a detailed plan April 21 on how they plan to keep the school open.

The future of the school will hinge on whether the committee can assure Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo that the school has a viable plan which would decrease the deficit of more than $500,000, improve the facility and have a marketing plan to seek an increase in enrollment.

St. Joseph’s School, located in an aging building in downtown Petersburg, currently has 149 students in 11 grade levels from prek–3 through the 8th grade. This year’s enrollment is 11 less than last year’s enrollment of 160. The building has a capacity of 250 students.

The school’s 8th grade expects to have 14 graduates this June. This year’s combined 6th and 7th grade students number only 13.

Parents and civic leaders in Petersburg want to keep the 132-year-old school open. The school was established in 1876 by the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent DePaul.

“For St. Joseph’s School to continue into next year and beyond will require more than a band-aid approach that a small amount of additional revenue can provide,” said Annette Parsons, Chief School Officer with the diocesan Office of Catholic Schools.

Demographics, a half-million dollar deficit, and rising costs are only three of the reasons the school has suffered declines in enrollment, Mrs. Parsons told The Catholic Virginian.

She cited a lack of successful marketing and development initiatives, mismanagement, and an inadequate aging facility as other concerns.

“For the school to move forward, it must have a plan that is acceptable to parish leadership, which has incurred the school’s debts thus far, and regretfully concluded that it can no longer support this school,” Mrs. Parsons said.

“We attempted to solve this difficulty earlier in the year by trying to regionalize the school, but other parishes in the region were not in a position to take on the debt nor fund the initiatives to improve the school program,” she added.

Pastors of the diocese’s Region 5 which includes Petersburg as well as lay leaders from the parishes’ pastoral and finance councils attended a meeting in mid-March at the Diocesan Pastoral Center and regretfully declined to operate St. Joseph’s as a regional school.

In an attempt to keep the school open, Bishop DiLorenzo authorized an emergency grant of $50,000 from the Bishop’s Appeal to help reduce this year’s operating deficit. The school was also required to liquidate its endowment fund of approximately $125,000.

A demographic study indicates that people moving to the Petersburg area with the impending expansion of Fort Lee in two years will likely impact Chesterfield County and Prince George County rather than the city of Petersburg.

The real cost of educating each student at St. Joseph’s School is about $7,000 per year, but the in-parish tuition for a student is $3,517 if a parent is registered at St. Joseph’s parish. Tuition for a non-parish student is $6,216.

“There are not unlimited resources,” Mrs. Parsons said. “We have to be good stewards of people’s money.”

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