Even as the Archdiocese of Denver plans to increase the share of parish offerings it dedicates to education, five Catholic elementary schools deemed too poor to be helped could be left out of the money.
Last year, when economic storms caused charitable giving and enrollment to drop, the archdiocese identified five schools likely to lose their archdiocese grants.
While only one archdiocese school has closed in the past 10 years, a dozen or more are facing stiff financial headwinds.
And a handful of schools likely won’t get any grants from the archdiocese because they are considered “unsustainable” in the long run because of declining enrollment trends, low revenues or lack of parental involvement, archdiocese spokeswoman Jeanette DeMelo said.
The archdiocese recently said that beginning in July, the amount of parish contributions devoted to education will rise to 3.79 percent from 1.5 percent.
However, the archdiocese also plans to end another education subsidy — one paid directly by parishes without schools to parish schools attended by their children.
This school year, two schools, including St. Catherine of Siena, lost archdiocese grant money but have hung on through private donations. Three others were warned they could be cut off in the 2010-11 fiscal year, DeMelo said.
The archdiocese would not name the schools, saying it is up to each parish to disclose its status.
One school that has made its plight public is Presentation of Our Lady Catholic School, where 80 percent of the 172 students are eligible for free or reduced-price school lunches.
In some years, the parish school, located in the west Denver neighborhood of Barnum, had received as much as $400,000 from the archdiocese. This school year, the grant was $216,000.
Although the budgeting process is not yet final, Presentation Pastor Ed Poehlmann expects nothing from the archdiocese next year.
Poehlmann and a few hundred worried parents and children packed the school gym at 660 Julian Street this month to discuss how they might keep their beloved 86-year-old school open.
“Are you passionate about keeping the school?” Poehlmann asked.
Everyone’s hand shot up.
Poehlmann, 69, who has scrambled to raise money for Catholic schools for many of his 43 years as a priest, said he now must work harder than ever to raise funds.
“It’s been especially difficult the last 15 years,” he said. “We don’t have enough parents who can pay full tuition.”
In one good year, Poehlmann personally raised $100,000 for the school from private donors, he said. And this year, he said, “angels” have left legacies or pledged donations.
It’s not enough.
Even if all parents could afford to pay the $3,700 per student tuition tab, principal Sandra Howard said the cost of educating each child is $6,000.
“There is a need for this school,” Howard said. “If we can make it affordable for parents, they will bring us their children.
“We need to go back to the archdiocese and say our parents are doing everything they can,” Howard said. “Please go home and pray about what you can do to help.”
Johnny Garcia, 29, is one of those parents who said he would do everything he could to ensure his daughter, Tawnee, a first-grader, can attend Presentation. His wife, who died of cancer in November, attended the school as a child and wanted her daughter to do the same.
“This school is really important to us,” Garcia said.
Other nearby Catholic schools are either full or also struggling with finances, Poehlmann said.
“These kids get lost in the shuffle at DPS (Denver Public Schools),” Poehlmann said. “They do very well in our schools by and large. If we don’t educate these children, who will?”
Electa Draper: 303-954-1276 or edraper@denverpost.com
