Mater Dei Supporters Vow to Bridge $1M Budget Gap

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By John Burton
MIDDLETOWN – The Mater Dei Prep community has come together to save its school.
Friday evening at the Roman Catholic school’s Memorial Hall, a full house ofapproximately 500 came to hear a plan that is being put into effect to prevent the school’s closing this June.
Alumni and student parent James Shaw laid out the strategy for the crowd and assured, by way of a sports metaphor, “We are going to take this ball and we’re going to win this game.”
Shaw and a group of parents and alumni are establishing a website, www.savetheseraphs.org, for the public to offer donations and working on other long-term methods to save the school, not only for next year but also for the future. That site is expected to be and running on Monday.
Shaw assured the group those funds would be placed in a designated escrow account and should the school not meet its announced goal of raising $1 or more to prevent the school’s closing, all those funds would be returned.
“We’re trying to address your concerns,” Shaw said.
Those working on the plan will look to utilize the school’s alumni base to a greater extent, have special events, and possibly seek out corporate sponsorship along with individual sponsorship, as just some ways to get the game going for the high school.
Alumni and parent James Keating, Middletown, said he was optimistic about what he heard and the chances for the school’s future.
“It’s too important a school, too good a school to let it die,” he said.
Mater Dei Prep High School, 538 Church St., announced on Tuesday it would close for good this June after operating for 50 years. The reason, school officials said, was a continuing operating budget deficit, which this year approached approximately $1 million, and years of struggling enrollment numbers.
The Diocese of Trenton had told school officials if the school was to continue it would have to be self-sufficient and  the diocese granted it a 60-day extension to raise the needed money to continue.
For an expanded story read the Feb. 12-20 edition of The Two River Times.