Catholic School Closings’ Impact On Haverford Township School District Remains Unseen

It may be five more months before Haverford School District can determine how the proposed closings and mergers of area Catholic schools will affect the district’s enrollment numbers, but either way, property taxes will not exceed the proposed 2.49 percent increase for 2012-2013, school officials said.

After a school board meeting on Thursday night, Haverford School Board President Denis Gray told the Haverford-Havertown Patch that “it’s awfully early” for the district to say how it will be impacted by the that the Church of Saint Denis merge with Annunciation B.V.M. School, and Monsignor Bonner and Archbishop Prendergast High Schools be closed in June.

are appealing the Blue Ribbon Commission’s recommendation.

There are currently 59 high-school-age students who live in Haverford Township and attend Monsignor Bonner and Archbishop Prendergast High schools, Gray said.

“We don’t know the impact of Annunciation and Saint Denis,” Gray added.

The district probably will not know until late June how many students from Monsignor Bonner, Prendergast, Annunciation and Saint Denis are going to enroll in Haverford public schools, Superintendent William Keilbaugh told Patch.

The school district has already had a few calls from parents who requested tours of district schools and talks with school principals, Keilbaugh said during the school board meeting and again during an interview with Patch after the meeting. 

But most parents will need more time to make a decision, both Keilbaugh and Gray said.

Keilbaugh said the district could absorb 50 to 60 new students at the elementary school level without too much of a problem.

“Depending on the numbers, we might need to make changes in teaching stations,” which are classrooms, Keilbaugh said.

Or, “if we have, all of a sudden, a huge enrollment,” then the district might need to balance it out by changing, which elementary school new students would be asdsigned to attend, Keilbaugh said.

The total number of students enrolled in the district as of Jan. 18. 2012 was 5,654, according to a chart on enrollment numbers, which was made publically available at the meeting as part of the superintendent’s report.

The 5,654 students includes: 2,587 students in the district’s five elementary schools, 1,286 students and 1,781 students, according to the enrollment chart.

Even if enrollment does increase next year, property taxes will not exceed the proposed 2.49 percent increase for 2012-2013 because the district is capped by law, Gray said.

During the school board meeting on Thursday night, the board unanimously voted to adopt the 2012-2013 proposed preliminary budget and resolution, which includes a 26.6689 millage rate that amounts to a 2.49 percent property tax increase.

The 2.49 percent increase is not in any way related to the proposed closings and mergers of area Catholic schools, district business manager Richard Henderson told Patch before the meeting.

Since the district cannot increase taxes beyond the 2.49 percent, if enrollment does increase significantly, “we might have to make adjustments in other places,” but it is too early to say what those adjustments would be, Keilbaugh said.

Keilbaugh and Gray were clear that the district would welcome new students from the Catholic schools.

“We’re here for them—if that’s an option they want to take—with open arms,” Gray said.

That sentiment was echoed by school board member Joseph Martin, who said during the meeting, that “the school district is owned by everyone in the community” and the district is prepared to take care of all of the children.