Parents outline plan to keep school open
Fundraising, tuition hikes, publicity included in proposal
BY SETH MANDEL
Staff Writer

MILLTOWN - More than 300 concerned residents, parents and parishioners have helped put together a plan to save Our Lady of Lourdes School.

"It's amazing," parent Tom Olson said of the effort. "There are a lot of people who either went there themselves or had their children go there; now, their grandkids are going there. So there are a lot of people that really want to see the school continue."

The plan was submitted to the Diocese of Metuchen for review in light of the school's financial struggle.

Diocese representatives last month notified parents that due to the financial struggles of the school and Our Lady of Lourdes parish, the school, which opened in 1942, may be in its final year.

Diocese spokeswoman Joann Ward has said that the parish, which should be subsidizing only about 15 percent of the school's costs, was shouldering much more of that burden. The parish's subsidy payments have doubled in the past five years, and this year could reach $300,000, leaving about $60,000 in the parish's budget surplus.

The diocese gave the school until last Friday to come up with a plan that would enable the school to raise enough money, while also helping the parish to build up its revenue.

On Friday, Olson said, the diocese was given a document of more than 100 pages outlining the community's plans to accomplish those goals.

"I think it addressed all the issues that they wanted," Olson said. "We did show that we would be able to raise sufficient funds and increase enrollment so that we can be able to keep going."

Some of the fundraising ideas, Olson said, include holding carnivals, car raffles and bingo events, as well as raising tuition.

Ellen Ayoub, superintendent of schools for the diocese, has said that the school's tuition rates were below those suggested by the diocesan guidelines.

Olson said the community has also started a fundraising drive through the parish, which he noted would benefit from the efforts to save the school.

"If the school does well, I think overall it's good for the parish, and maybe we can energize not only to get people to help the school, but energize things over at the parish," Olson said.

Declining enrollment is another issue facing the school. The school currently has 136 students in grades K-8, in addition to a prekindergarten class, though the school is projected to have more than 150 students next year.

Olson said the plan includes considerations for another open house in May, improving the school's Web site, and stepping up the school's outreach efforts.

Most of the students are from Milltown and North Brunswick, but there are other area parishes that do not have schools, Olson noted.

Representatives of the school, he said, would seek to "just get the word out that our school is an option that they might want to consider. Some of them are parishes in the area that don't have schools, so we would like to increase that awareness."

Olson said the school has held several meetings on the issue. At the first such meeting, the attendees broke up into subcommittees focusing on tuition, finance, fundraising or the school and parish's overall organizational structure.

"The past two weeks, every night there was one group or another meeting at the school," Olson said, adding that calls have constantly come in from people offering their time, money or ideas. "It was really great; we could not have had a better response."

Olson said the group feels optimistic, not just about its presentation, but because of the open-minded and supportive response from the diocese.

"They seemed genuinely concerned, like they genuinely would like to help, genuinely want to try and keep the school open," he said.

The diocese has not given a time frame for a decision, but Olson expects to hear something in the next week or so.

Corpus Christi School, in South River, faced a similar situation last year, when the diocese announced it was closing the school. In January 2005, after parents rallied support for the school, the diocese reversed its decision.

Olson said that the two schools will continue to support each other as they have done over the past year, and that if the Our Lady of Lourdes plan works, they would be happy to share ideas with Corpus Christi, if needed.

"We want them to stay open just as we want to stay open," Olson said. "If we can help them, we'd be glad to do it. That's the idea, not to have any of the schools close, but to have them all stay open."