St. Joseph's Closing Official, Other Catholic Schools Impacted

St. Joseph's Catholic School is officially closing, the Archdiocese of Newark confirmed on Friday, despite a last-ditch push by parents to raise the money needed to keep the school open.

The reverberations of St. Joseph's shuttering were felt in two nearby Catholic schools, Marylawn Academy and Our Lady of Sorrows. St. Joseph's will shut its doors at the end of June, said James Goodness, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Newark.

"It truly is sad that this school is closing," Goodness said. "But as we had said before, the issues that this school was facing simply were not surmountable."

After telling school staff on May 21 that St. Joseph's would close, pastor Michael Saporito gave the school a reprieve after parents lobbied him to keep it open while they worked to raise both money and enrollment.

Derrick J. Watkins, St. Joseph's of Maplewood Parent Teacher Association president, said that the parents association was within striking distance of meeting their target number of 155 students enrolled. As of Tuesday night, he said there were 100 students paid up for next year and another 20 verbally committed. He believed that the newly motivated and mobilized parents and parishioners could have signed on the rest in short order.

He said he was disappointed on Wednesday to receive an e-mail from Fr. Saporito saying that the school would close anyway.

"It was devastating and the reason why is because saving the school was very doable," he said. "I think the church had a different agenda. I'd be very interested to see what happens with the school and with the property going forward."

Laura Farrell, a parishioner and mother of a child in the St. Joseph's pre-school program, said that considering how motivated parents were to keep the school open, she was upset that church officials didn't let them know sooner that St. Joseph's was on the verge of closing.

"The lack of communication was astounding," she said. "The parents mobilized so quickly when it was announced the school would be closing–raising lots of money in a short time and building enrollment–but the decision to close was announced so late in the year, and without input from parents and the school community during the decision-making process."

Meanwhile, ever since Fr. Saporito's announcement that St. Joseph's was likely to close, nearby Catholic schools have felt the effects, school officials said.

Christine H. Lopez, principal of Marylawn, an all-girl's Catholic high school in South Orange, said officials from St. Joseph's approached Marylawn for information to give students who might want to enroll.

"We would be more than open to having those students come to Marylawn," Lopez said. "Any of the girls."

Enrollment at Marylawn is steady at around 150 to 160 students. Lopez said that while the school could hold more, they feel fortunate not to have been dogged with the low enrollments that have hurt other Catholic schools around the country.

"Given the economy, we count ourselves very lucky that things are going fine," she said.

Marylawn will also open a new middle school this September for 7^th and 8^th grade girls. It will open in a separate wing of the school's campus on Scotland Road. Lopez said the plans for this new middle school have been in the works for several years and in the last two years school administrators collected feedback from parents, alumni and other community members. The church is expecting the first year's enrollment to be around 15 or 20, Lopez said.

Meanwhile, at South Orange's other Catholic School, Our Lady of Sorrows, enrollment stands at 190, according to Goodness, the spokesman for the Archdiocese. Principal Judith Blair declined to comment.

The average tuition at St. Joseph's was $4,600 annually. Tuition at Marylawn is $5,500 for the middle school and $8,300 for the high school, with a deduction of $1,382 if two or more siblings are enrolled. Tuition for children of parishioners at Our Lady of Sorrows is $4,870 for one student and $8,500 for two. For children of non-parishioners, the numbers are $6,925 and $13,650 respectively.

St. Joseph's enrollment was down more than 50 from last year and was just slightly more than half of what it was in 2003, Goodness said.

Community businesses were quick to lend their support to St. Joseph's cause. Churrasco Steak House offered a deal on Tuesdays in which 10 percent of any diner's bill would go to St. Joseph's if that person mentioned the school's name.

Manager Rosie Ferreira said the program raised around $100 in two weeks.

She said she was moved to help St. Joseph's school after a parent came in to talk to her. One of Ferreira's two children was enrolled at The Academy of St. Benedict's in Newark when that school closed in 2005, so she empathized with parents at St. Joseph's.

"We decided to help out," she said.

Gangeya Dave, owner of Topf's Maplewood Pharmacy, located near the church, said he also pledged to help the school after a parent visited him.

"We're willing to help, anything we can do," Dave said.

Dave said he wanted to help out St. Joseph's School for the sake of his neighborhood.

"I'm not even a Catholic," said Dave, who is Hindu. "It has to do with community."