Parents Surprised By Catholic School Closing, Coronavirus Blamed

LAKELAND, FL — Parents of children who attend one of Lakeland's oldest Catholic schools, St. Joseph Academy, were sent letters on May 22 informing them that the school was suddenly closing.

The letter sent by the Very Reverend Timothy LaBo said that financial issues experienced by the community due to the coronavirus pandemic has contributed to a less than desired number of re-enrollments in the school.

The letter said, "What we could not have imagined was the COVID-19 pandemic and its effect upon our world in such a short time. As this crisis has unfolded, our economy has changed dramatically. Many families have been out of work businesses struggling to stay open and many of our parishioners have requested financial assistance. Because of these factors, there has been a serious impact on our re-enrollment numbers."

Patch reached out to the school to request further details about financial issues mentioned in the letter, however, no one has returned our phone call.

LaBo mentioned in the letter that he plans to merge St. Joseph Academy with other Catholic schools in Polk County: Resurrection Catholic School in Lakeland, St. Anthony Catholic School in Lakeland, St. Joseph Catholic School in Winter Haven and the Neumann Early Learning Academy in Lakeland.

Many parents with students enrolled at the school that has been around for 82 years do not want to see this happen. They have expressed confusion, concern and had discussions about how to raise money to keep the school in business on a Facebook page started by some parents called Save St. Joseph's Academy.

One of those parents who is passionate about keeping the school open is Anna Hamilton McNeil. She has a 6-year-old son who attends the school, and she is in the process of figuring out how to raise or acquire between $1 and $2 million that Father Tim told her would be needed to keep the school open.

"We are working on setting a fundraiser, we do not have one yet, we need to find the logistics of it," McNeil said. "It's not as easy as setting up a GoFundMe page because we have to make sure the money is going to the right place and the right people are in charge of it so we are working on that."

McNeil said school supporters are looking into a campaign to contact the archbishop of Los Angeles, as he is the head of the United States Catholic Committee of Bishops. They also want to send letters to the Pope.

"Our diocese has already told us that they are not in a position to help, so we are planning to go outside of our diocese to see if we can get help," McNeil said. "We love our school and our teachers so incredibly much, and it is awful that this is happening."

McNeil encourages support of keeping the school open by signing the petition at Change.org. At the time of writing this article, it has received over 600 signatures.