Mother Teresa Regional School Bids Farewell

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By Joseph Sapia
ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS – On June 17, classes at Mother Teresa Regional School end – for good.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Trenton announced in January the closing of the pre-kindergarten to 8th-grade school after 10 years, because of financial difficulties and an insufficient enrollment. So, on Sunday, June 5, the school threw itself “A Celebration of 10 Years of Memories” picnic.
“I think we’ve accepted our closure, we’re moving on,” said Tom Sorci, 62, who had been principal for three school years.
But Sorci said, despite the celebration on the school’s South Avenue grounds, the feeling was “bittersweet.”
“School means so much to many,” Sorci said.
As the school’s life winds down, there was a negative feeling among some.

Statue outside Mother Teresa Regional School in Atlantic Highlands.
Statue outside Mother Teresa Regional School in Atlantic Highlands.

“I’m really devastated because I’ve been here pretty much my whole life,” said Connor Przelomski, 14, of Middletown, one of 18 in the last graduating class. “(But) the last thing you want to see is negativity. I want to see the school close in a positive way.”
Connor was one of three graduates – along with Mike Folk and Ryan Kennedy, both 13 and both from Middletown — who have spent all 10 years, from pre-kindergarten to 8th grade, at the school.
“We’re happy we’re graduating, but we’re the last to graduate,” Ryan said.
Mike called the school his “second family.” And the school is part of extended families – siblings who graduated from the school (along with parents when it was formerly St. Agnes School) and parents working at the school.
“The classes were small, you got to know the people,” Mike said.
“We have something really beautiful here,” said school parent Rita Gallazzini, 41. “What I see as its biggest asset is its downfall – small size.”
The small size and, in turn, trouble properly funding the school, proved costly. The school’s enrollment is 120, far from the minimum ideal enrollment of 220 set by the diocese – an enrollment only reached in its first year of 2006-2007.
The school generally maintained a balanced annual budget of about $950,000, about one-third from tuition and about two-thirds through the support of its sponsor parishes: Our Lady of Perpetual Help-St. Agnes, Highlands-Atlantic Highlands; St. Ann, Keansburg; St. Catherine Laboure, Middletown; and Holy Family, Union Beach-Hazlet. But parishes could not afford to keep this up, Sorci said.
“We had been working very hard to save the school,” said Joe Bullwinkel, 67, a member of the school’s board who lives in Middletown. “But it was probably going to take several years to bear fruit.
“I think it’s important to have faith-filled education, where you can talk about your faith in class,” said Bullwinkel, a retired educator from Mater Dei Prep High School in Middletown.

Former Mother Teresa Regional School teacher Brendan McGoldrick attended the school’s “A Celebration of 10 Years of Memories” picnic Sunday.
Former Mother Teresa Regional School teacher Brendan McGoldrick attended the school’s “A Celebration of 10 Years of Memories” picnic Sunday.

The idea of the celebration was “just to come together, have a good time,” said Melissa Whelan, who co-chaired the event and was the school’s founding and only other principal.
Over the school’s 10 years, an estimated 1,000-plus students passed through, including about 225 graduates, said Whelan, now a humanities teacher at Trinity Hall, a girls high school in the Catholic tradition in Middletown.
To keep the celebration manageable, the picnic focused on Mother Teresa Regional School students past and present, rather than students from the five elementary schools that closed to form Mother Teresa – St. Agnes, which previously occupied the building; Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Highlands; St. Ann, Keansburg; Holy Family, Union Beach-Hazlet; and St. Catherine Laboure, Middletown. But all were welcome.
One attendee was Brendan McGoldrick, 30, a Matawan resident who formerly taught history and language arts at Mother Teresa.
“This was the first school I ever taught at,” said McGoldrick, now a teacher at Red Bank Regional High School in Little Silver. “It was one of the best experiences I ever had. I really had a lot of love for this school.”
One of the organizers of the celebration was Sydney Rosa, 18, of Atlantic Highlands, who attended the school through 8th grade.
“I love Mother Teresa,” said Rosa, who recently graduated from Red Bank Catholic High School and is headed to the University of Alabama. “I wanted to be part of getting everybody back together.”
This week is “Pride Week” at Mother Teresa, with students and staff looking back at the 10-year history.
“This community really loved this school,” McGoldrick said.
Not only does Maureen Osborn, 51, of Middletown have two sons – David, 19, and Patrick, 15 – who graduated from Mother Teresa, but she graduated in 1978 from the school when it was St. Agnes.
“It’s the last picnic,” Osborn said. “We had to be here. We couldn’t miss this.”
When school ends, Connor Przelomski will be looking to attend Christian Brothers Academy in Middletown, while Ryan Kennedy heads to Middletown South High School. Mike Folk is headed to Mater Dei High School, a Middletown Catholic school that, too, has struggled to stay alive in recent years.
Younger students who are remaining in Catholic school will go to Holy Cross School, Rumson; St. Leo the Great in Lincroft; St. Mary in Middletown; St. Benedict in Holmdel; and St. James in Red Bank.
Friends Gallazzini and Jaimee Ascolese, 34, both of Atlantic Highlands, are moving their 5-year-old kindergarteners – Leo and Sarah, respectively – to St. Leo the Great.
Gallazzini said St. Leo is a “strong school.” St. Leo made them feel “very welcome,” said Ascolese, who will also send her daughter, Evelina, 2, to pre-kindergarten at St. Leo.
Mother Teresa has about 15 full-time and 10 part-time workers of which about three-quarters are teachers. Some of the staff has found new work, some are looking, some retiring.
Irene Sikora, the fourth grade teacher, is calling it a career after teaching in the diocese 41 years.
“I wasn’t planning on retiring, but this kind of forced it,” said Sikora, who came to Mother Teresa after the closing of St. Ann, where she taught 34 years.
Sorci is moving to the Flagstaff, Arizona, area where his daughter and grandson live. He does not have a job lined up.
The school building, owned by the Parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Help-St. Agnes, will be used by the parish, Sorci said.
“I’m very upset,” Sikora said. “I think it offers quality education at a reasonable price. A small class size afforded us an opportunity to give individual attention. I’m a firm believer in Catholic education.”
Perhaps the soul of Mother Teresa Regional School will remain.
“I think all of us will stay together as a community,” Rosa said. “It’s like a legacy here, we’re all really close to each other.”