New Canaan Parents Sued By Catholic School Over Tuition: Report

NEW CANAAN, CT — Kelly and Douglas Gervolino of New Canaan decided to send their daughter, Katherine, to a Catholic school in Bridgeport as a member of the 2018-19 freshman class.

On the surface, that sounds reasonable, but the decision came after the family visited Milford-based Catholic school Lauralton Hall, paid it a non-refundable $1,000 deposit and then missed the deadline by over a month to tell Lauralton Hall that their daughter wasn't coming.

Now Lauralton Hall is suing the Gervolinos for more than $22,000 in tuition, penalties and legal fees, even though their daughter never attended the school. Read the lawsuit.

Kelly Gervolino tells the Hartford Courant that she missed the notification deadline in the summer of 2018 because she was hospitalized for several weeks during a battle with viral meningitis. The family signed the enrollment contract in February 2018, and was supposed to notify the school by the end of that year, the lawsuit says.

In addition to Lauralton Hall, the Gervolinos had visited other Catholic schools before making their decision not to attend the Milford institution, according to the Courant.

But Kelly didn't inform Lauralton Hall of the family's decision for Katherine to attend another school until Aug. 13, 2018 when she left a voicemail, the lawsuit says.

The all-girls school had reserved a place for the Gervolino's daughter for the fall of 2018, according to the lawsuit, adding that "if enrollment was not withdrawn in writing by June 30, 2018 then tuition would be due and payable in full."

The school sent a bill collector after the Gervolinos in the spring of 2019 for the payment, at which time Kelly produced the medical receipts for the school to review as proof of her hospitalization, she told the Courant.

Apparently that was not good enough for Lauralton Hall, which filed the lawsuit in January.