Mater Dei Prep Campaigns To Save School From Closure

Mater Dei Prep, a Catholic high school in Middletown, NJ announced earlier this month that it was going to close at the end of this school year in June. The news sent shock waves through the entire community in that central New Jersey town and throughout Monmouth and Middlesex counties.

The announced closure has left hundreds of students scrambling to make alternative plans to continue their high school education, it has left the alumni of the school feeling a range of emotions from sad to frustrated, and it has left the entire community in a state of utter disbelief that the school is on the verge of closure.

In an effort toward full disclosure, my wife is an alumnus of the school, and I know several people who either attended Mater Dei, had children who attended the school, or currently have children in attendance at the school. I have also volunteered my time for some projects at the school through my involvement with the parish which serves the high school, St. Mary Mother of God Parish.

Save The Seraphs

Due to the swift and widespread outpouring of emotions regarding the decision, the Director of Mater Dei Prep and the Pastor of St. Mary Mother of God Parish, Father Jeff Kegley, announced a two- month window to fundraise the one million dollars needed to close the deficit and keep the school open.

The fundraising drive is called the “Save the Seraphs” campaign, deriving the name from the moniker of Mater Dei’s sports teams. The hashtag “Save the Seraphs” is used on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to build traction for this movement. The fundraising campaign has raised $310,000 in less than two weeks. It should also be mentioned that if the one million dollar goal is not attained by this campaign, then refunds will be issued to all who donated.

Mater Dei has a reputation for being a community-oriented school, more so than other schools in the area. I think it originated from the smaller size of the student body when compared to other larger Catholic high schools in the area. I had heard stories through the years from alumni about their respective experiences there at Mater Dei Prep. However I truly gained a glimpse of it when I became more involved in the parish community at St. Mary’s a couple of years ago.

I found that Mater Dei truly is a place where everyone gets along and where everyone cares for one another. In my view, that is rare and not often the traits which are exhibited by teenagers these days. The alumni also told me that going there was like being part of a family. These same people, current students and alumni of the school are devastated that it all may come to an abrupt end.

A New Model

Those emotions quickly turned to determination to keep the doors of the school open, not just for next year but for years to come. This is not going to happen overnight, just as the precipitous decline of the school did not happen in the course of just a couple of years.

Many decisions were made to bring the school to this point and they were not all made by one person or by one group of people, the financial issues facing Mater Dei and other schools in the area have been mounting for many years. It was the result of a confluence of factors and not just the decisions made in a 24-month period of time.

The financial model for parochial education has to be reevaluated as it may be completely unsustainable in the new economic paradigms of today’s society with a shrinking middle class, weak job growth, and flat wages. The bigger issue here is not just the fate of Mater Dei Prep, but the downfall of Catholic education on a much more widespread level.

I am a product of Catholic education, I spent my entire educational formation being taught the values and ethics I would need to live a life of service to my family, my community, those in need, and my Church parish community. I had the gift of faith instilled and nurtured within me from a young age. That faith has guided me through some difficult times in my life. I could not imagine my life without my faith which was a direct result of my Catholic education.

The emotions are high right now at Mater Dei Prep, understandably so as part of the human condition, and throughout the community as well. Everyone involved within the Mater Dei community whether it is the alumni association, faculty, staff, or current students have to remember that their actions are under a microscope right now. The story surrounding the closure of the school has been featured on the front page of The Asbury Park Press on multiple occasions as well as being reported on local television news programs. They have to keep in mind that they are representing a Catholic school and the responsibility that comes along with that distinction needs to be placed at the forefront.

The parties involved in the task of saving Mater Dei Prep from closure need to get on the same page, they need to be united. It is in unity that the task will remain attainable. I have been involved in many fundraising campaigns, and they are not successful unless they are unified. Mater Dei needs to rise above the minutia prevalent at this point and come together to save the school that they all care for so passionately.

Backdrop

The rationale behind the decision to close Mater Dei Prep in June is based on a mounting financial deficit stemming from a period of years of declining enrollments. The most recent freshmen class brought an uptick in new students but it did not generate enough revenue to offset the already existing deficit.

Most people do not realize that the church parish funds subsidize the schools involved, and that very few Catholic schools are self-sufficient in being able to survive without even some financial assistance from the parish.

The trend of Catholic school or parish closures is an unfortunately all too familiar theme across not just New Jersey but the entire Northeast region, and even stretching into other areas of the country. The news media is filled with stories of Catholic dioceses making difficult choices to close parishes, schools, and churches which have been part of their respective communities for decades.

In New York City and across parts of the rest of New York State this issue of declining parish collections has led to the closure or scheduled closure of several parishes and schools throughout many Catholic dioceses. It has become almost standard fare on the news broadcasts out of New York City to see protest rallies with people upset that their neighborhood church is going to have to close the doors permanently.

In New Jersey, it is a combination of declining parish collection revenue and a weak economy that is causing the downfall of parishes and Catholic schools across the state. In the case of Mater Dei Prep, it falls under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Trenton, and they had some involvement in the decision to close at this time. The Diocese of Trenton has, just like many other dioceses of its size, been faced with merging parishes and closing others over the past five to seven years in particular.

The preference from the diocesan level in Trenton was to assist large parish communities which had their school or schools (if they had a high school or prep school in addition to an elementary school) in an expansive campus with a physical plant and athletic fields in one inclusive location.

Mater Dei Prep along with St. Mary’s Elementary school (which has one of the highest enrollments in the region) and St. Mary Mother of God parish are all located on a very large campus complete with athletic fields and other facilities. The parish community is rather large when compared with other parishes in the region, and the faith community is a rather vibrant and active one.

In fact, Mater Dei will celebrate their 50th anniversary of the opening of the school this spring. It is a rather hard reality for the community to face that this graduating class may be the last one in the history of the institution.

In my view, these factors serve to heighten the shock over the decision announced regarding Mater Dei Prep. The school had all of the attributes that the diocese was looking for, it was located on an expansive campus with a large and active church community. Therefore, I think there was a belief that the school was safe from the fate that had fallen upon smaller schools which did not have the same support structure.

I cannot comprehend that future generations would not have that same opportunity to have a Catholic education, but that is where we may be headed as a society unless the model changes and evolves with the pressures shaping our economic situation today and in the years ahead.

If you would like to make a donation to save Mater Dei Prep from closure please go to www.seraphfund.org to contribute to the “Save The Seraphs” campaign. You can make a difference in making sure that the children of future generations have Catholic school alternatives to instill in them the values they will need to make positive contributions to our society.