ARTICLES

Petersburg school faces diocesan deadline

By Steve Neill
Of The Catholic Virginian

In the struggle of St. Joseph’s School of Petersburg to remain open despite a deficit of more than $500,000 and an enrollment of only 149 students from 11 grade levels, supporters of the school have rallied to try to raise $1 million by Monday, April 21.

Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo has said that amount is needed to cover the deficit and meet projected expenditures for the next school year. If the amount raised does not reach $1 million by the April 21 deadline, the diocese may close the school. All donations would be returned to the donors.

At the meeting, to be held at 10 a.m. at the Diocesan Pastoral Center, St. Joseph’s School officials will meet with representatives of the Office of Catholic Schools and Office of Finance. Also present will be Father Esteban Antes, pastor of St. Joseph’s parish in Petersburg, and members of the parish pastoral and finance councils, and members of St. Joseph’s School Board.

The deadline for securing teacher contracts for the coming school year is imminent and a decision on the fate of St. Joseph’s School must be made before contracts are signed. If the teacher contracts were to be signed, St. Joseph’s parish would be liable to pay teacher salaries for the next school year even if the school were to close.

In the event that the school is closed, the diocese wants teachers and other staff members to have adequate time to find other jobs. The Office of Catholic Schools has contacted other Catholic schools in the Richmond area and they have agreed to give priority to St. Joseph’s teachers if there are openings on their faculty.

St. Joseph’s parish, which has made a significant subsidy to operate the parish school, is unable to borrow any more funds to underwrite the continuing operating deficit of the school, said John Barrett, director of the diocesan Office of Finance.

The parish had last month asked Bishop DiLorenzo to close the school, claiming it was no longer able to provide a subsidy to help operate the school which had been operating with a growing deficit for the past four years.

In terms of support for the school, Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell visited St. Joseph’s School on April 14 to encourage more people to send money to keep the school open. After a tour of the school building, he sent an e-mail message to more than 10,000 people on his political mailing list urging their financial help for the school.

Contributions are continuing to pour in, Ruth Bonner, principal of the school, told The Catholic Virginian.

“Right now we have cash on hand $350,000,” she said on April 15, the day before the paper went to press for the April 21 issue.

Among the gifts was a donation of $20,000 from Dominion Virginia Power which Attorney General McDonnell secured for the school. He also gave a personal gift.

Mrs. Bonner, who said she has been overwhelmed with community support for St. Joseph’s School, said there have also been non-cash offers of help which will help provide improvements to the aging building.

“We’ve gotten someone to paint the inside and outside of the school,” she said.

“Somebody has agreed to do the work to fix the roof, at least at cost,” Mrs. Bonner added. “The last time we had it done in 1991, it cost about $50,000.”

There has been an offer to professionally redesign the school’s website at no cost, a savings of about $10,000. This is a response to Bishop DiLorenzo’s assertion that the school did not have a viable marketing and development plan to attract more students to the school.

“The Community Foundation of Richmond will give us a grant, but we don’t have a figure on that now,” Mrs. Bonner said. “We’re moving along.”

The student body of St. Joseph’s School, located in downtown Petersburg, is only 22 percent Catholic.

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