From The Editor: Why Were There No Warnings of Mater Dei Prep Closure?

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February 6, 2015
To Our Readers,
The sudden and shocking closing of Mater Dei Prep in Middletown will leave a deep hole in the Monmouth County community. It was a sad moment to hear the fast moving news that the Blue and White Seraphs were to be no more at the end of the school year.
This news on the school’s 50th anniversary, a time when alum were planning a grand celebration of proms, sports teams, and all things precious during those formative high school years. The small, collegial environment of just 340 students from 20 different socio-economically diverse communities was critical in teaching the skills we all most learn – to respect those who are like us, but still different. Some students, many who have been together since first grade at St. Mary’s Elementary, parents and alumni are enraged by the local parish’s decision and feel blindsided. The Dioceses of Trenton made it clear that’s where the decision was made, at the local level.
Pastor Jeff Kegley in a post on the school website, delivered the news “with sadness.” Students and parents alike were upset at the forum and wondered why there wasn’t personal contact – after all, you wouldn’t deliver bad news to anyone other than in person. Or more critically, why wasn’t anyone evenly faintly forewarned? Students will be scrambling for placement in other schools and the all-boys Christian Brothers Academy has made it clear they must give priority to the 60 students already on their wait list for next year. Red Bank Catholic said it would also try to accommodate displaced students. The new, all-girl Trinity Hall in Middletown is an option but as one junior put it, there are concerns that the school is too new to be taken seriously by colleges and universities. And how will students accustomed to a small class, small school environment assimilate in a large, public regional high school like Henry Hudson or Middletown North or Middletown South? What about the athletes who hoped – no dreamed – to be playing JV or varsity next year proudly representing the school with the motto Fide et Fortitudine (Faith and Fortitude)? What about those thespians who looked forward to that moment when they might finally get one of the leading roles in the high school play? And what’s to become of the 48 faculty and staff currently employed at the school?
Father Kegley, with all due respect, why wouldn’t you have announced the school’s impending financial concerns of a projected $1 million loss this school year earlier? Why didn’t you seek help from your vast community?
As an alumnus of Red Bank Catholic, I simply cannot fathom what it feels like to have my high school simply disappear. And without warning. It’s a very sad day for the children, and the past children who walked the halls of Mater Dei, and is reminiscent of “The Bells of St. Mary’s.”
Jody Calendar
Executive Editor/Co-Publisher
jcalendar@tworivertimes.com
732-219-5788