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	Diocese Announces New School in Cranston; Will Close St. Leo's By Richard C. Dujardin Providence Journal March 15, 2008 http://www.projo.com/religion/content/catholic_schools_03-15-08_Q69D0QC_v10.36633fd.html PROVIDENCE — As it announced plans for a new Catholic school in Cranston and granted reprieves to two schools that were in danger of closing, the Diocese of Providence disclosed yesterday that another school, St. Leo's in Pawtucket, will close at the end of the school year. The moves — coming just a day after Bishop Thomas J. Tobin joined with Governor Carcieri at the State House in a celebration of Catholic education — helped to underscore the depth of the challenges facing Catholic schools here and elsewhere. Sheila Durante, superintendent of Catholic schools, said unlike a half-century ago when a cadre of religious order sisters and brothers taught in Catholic schools at very little pay, today's Catholic schools, with primarily lay faculties, must pay higher wages and much higher health-care costs, putting tuition out of reach for an increasing number of families. The Rev. David E. Green, pastor of St. Kevin Church in Warwick, was able to stave off the closing of the parish school by convincing the bishop that he has the financial resources to keep the school open while the parish works on strategies to bolster enrollment. The Father Holland School in Pascoag, which was on the verge of closing when the Woonsocket Catholic Regional School system decided to shut it down because of low enrollment, also recently got a new lease on life when the school returned to becoming a parish school — for St. Joseph Church in Burrillville — and undertook an aggressive and successful campaign to recruit new students from the Burrillville area. But events did not pan out the same at St. Leo's, which has been educating youngsters since 1941. On Thursday, principal Lisa Lepore sent letters to parents of the school's 172 students notifying them that Bishop Tobin had accepted the request of the Rev. Kevin Fisette to close at the end of the school year. The stated reason: only 92 students had registered for the fall, well short of the goal of 165. Robert Dalton, the chairman of the parish school committee, said there was little question that yesterday was a "terrible day" for St. Leo's. He said members of his family had been involved with the school for more than four decades, including himself, his two brothers and a sister, his two children, two of his sister's children and a brother who taught there. Dalton said a steady decrease in enrollment over the last several years had little to do with the quality of education but was rather due to families being financially strapped. "The bottom line is that the demographics in Pawtucket have changed," Dalton said. Many of the families don't have the means to pay for tuition increases, which were pegged to go up $600 per student — to a total of $4,000 — next year. "When you're talking about a family with two or three students in the school, that would be a $1,200 or $1,800 increase. "I think we need to find another way to fund Catholic education. We just have to find a way to make it affordable to families," he said. Bishop Tobin gave the green light to the building of a $9.5-million school, Immaculate Conception School, to be located behind Immaculate Conception parish center on Garden Hills Drive in Cranston. With an initial capacity of 325 students, the school would open in the fall of 2009 and would replace Cranston-Johnston Catholic Regional School in Garden City, which currently has an enrollment of 352. The Rev. Ronald Brassard, pastor at Immaculate Conception, said the school is in need of major renovations and that he and others believed it made more sense to build a new school with a sizeable library and media center, school-wide wireless Internet access, a gymnasium, a 200-seat theater, three art galleries and an art studio. While lower grades, beginning with pre-K, would have one grade each, Father Brassard said grades 6 through 8 will have two classrooms each, with an eye toward attracting more students from public schools. At a time when many public school systems are cutting offerings in art, music and sports, the priest said, "I think we can exceed what the public schools have to offer." Father Brassard said a recent survey of families with children at Cranston-Johnston showed that 95 percent of them would go to the new school if it were to open. He said that if every student there wanted to enroll, he's confident that Immaculate Conception would be able to handle the influx by creating temporary classroom space. He said the new school will be built so another floor could be added. "Catholic education will always have a future here in this diocese," the priest said. "It provides knowledge and learning and values to live our faith and is moving into the forefront in arts, theater and music. It is far from dying." Durante, the Catholic schools superintendent, noted one more decision involving Catholic schooling has yet to be made: the Rev. Peter DiTullio, pastor of Sacred Heart parish in East Providence, has warned parishioners that their school, too, needs to boost enrollment in order to stay open, and has challenged the parishioners to register 160 students for the upcoming year by March 31. There are 44 Catholic elementary schools and 8 Catholic high schools in the diocese, with roughly 10,000 students in elementary grades and 6,000 in high schools. Though the numbers are significantly below those of 1950s and 1960s when Catholic schools were booming, schools in the Providence Diocese enjoyed a 17-percent increase over a five-year period beginning in 1997. But since 2002, the trend again reversed itself, erasing all the gains of those years. Durante said she does not believe that the church's sexual-abuse scandal was a factor in the more recent decline, saying she believes it has more to do with demographics and economics. She believes those two factors have particularly hampered the growth in Rhode Island's cities such as Providence, Pawtucket and Central Falls. "Last year we gave $1.5 million in tuition assistance, but it was clearly not enough. When we added up the need as found in the applications for assistance, the need was between $13 million and $14 million." Durante, as well as some of the school officials at St. Leo's, say that in retrospect they perhaps should have used a different approach in warning school parents at St. Leo's that the school might have to close if they did not boost enrollment. The warning appears to have had the effect of scaring away many and prompting them to enroll their children at two nearby schools, St. Cecilia's and St. Teresa's. Dalton said parishioners are determined not to allow St. Leo's school to end on a down note. They are planning to turn the parish's dinner dance at the West Valley Inn in West Warwick on May 3 into a celebration of the school, honoring those who have been involved over the years. "We have a very long and proud history and we will celebrate that history, because the lessons we learned at the school will live with us long after the doors close." Contact: rdujardi@projo.com
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