Sadness In Halls of Mother Teresa School With News of Impending Closure

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Some Talk of Bringing the School Back, Or Going Charter

By Joseph Sapia
ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS – Mother Teresa Regional School, a Roman Catholic Diocese of Trenton elementary school, is winding down its tenth – and final –year.
On Jan. 15, the diocese announced it is closing the school because of declining enrollment and financial difficulties.
“The rumors have been going around for some time,” said Alton W. Drake II, president of the school’s board.
There is talk of somehow rejuvenating the school – approaching the diocese to reconsider or maybe even forming a charter school, Drake said.
Either option seems a dream. Talking to the diocese means talking to the entity ordering the school closed and forming a charter school is a time-consuming process that would mean the school could not reopen until at least the 2017-2018 school year.
Now, the school – which has 122 students in pre-kindergarten to 8th grade – is looking to help its students find new schools and its staff to find jobs, said Principal Thomas Sorci.
“Our main concern was students,” Sorci said. “We wanted to make sure the (other) Catholic schools accommodate our kids.”
Mother Teresa students can transfer to Holy Cross School, Rumson; St. Leo the Great in Lincroft, and St. Mary in Middletown; St. Benedict, Holmdel; and St. James, Red Bank.

Thomas Sorci, principal of Mother Teresa Regional School in Atlantic Highlands, on the telephone in the school’s main office.
Thomas Sorci, principal of Mother Teresa Regional School in Atlantic Highlands, on the telephone in the school’s main office.

“Some of the kids have looked at schools,” Sorci said. “Some of the families have decided where they want to go. Some have given up on Catholic education.”
Area public schools are strong, so there will be positive education, Sorci said. But if the children go to public schools, they will “miss the Catholic element,” he said.
Eighth grader Ryan Kennedy started at Mother Teresa in pre-kindergarten. He has never known another school. “I’m upset, I practically grew up here,” Ryan said. “Practically, this is my second family.”
Next year, Ryan will attend Middletown High School South.
“We’re the last graduating eighth grade class,” said Hannah Kahane, 14, who is going off to St. John Vianney High School in Holmdel.
“Second is our teachers,” Sorci said. “I’ve written recommendations for every teacher that’s asked me.”
“I’m so sad about it,” said art teacher Connie Jamele, 36. “I’ve worked at a lot of different schools, (but) I’ve never seen another school with that sense of community. I keep asking, ‘Is there anything I can do?’”
Even the principal will be looking for work.
“I have a lot of energy left,” said Sorci, 62, who assumed his post just two years ago. “I’d like to spend it in a Catholic school.”
The school has a staff of about 15 full-time and 10 part-time staff, of which about three-quarters are teachers.
Students and teachers looking for places to move to next year may hurt the school’s chances for a possible reopening.

Kristina Pascucci, vice president of the Parent-Teacher Association at Mother Teresa Regional School in Atlantic Highlands, foreground, and Liz Clayton, PTA president, set up ice cream for students in the school cafeteria. Each has two children at the school. Photo: Joseph Sapia
Kristina Pascucci, vice president of the Parent-Teacher Association at Mother Teresa Regional School in Atlantic Highlands, foreground, and Liz Clayton, PTA president, set up ice cream for students in the school cafeteria. Each has two children at the school. Photo: Joseph Sapia

As Liz Clayton, 38, mother of two children at the school and its Parent-Teacher Association president, said, “I think if it doesn’t happen right away, it’s not feasible because everyone’s going to have found a new home.”
And moving to another Catholic school, in this age of Catholic school mergers and closings, is no guarantee of a child completing his or her Catholic education.
“Some of them (parents) have been through it before,” school secretary Kelly Condon, 47, mother of two Mother Teresa students.
Mother Teresa, itself, formed as a result of five elementary schools closing: 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.
The school, according to Sorci, generally maintained a balanced annual budget of $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, St. Ann, St. Catherine Laboure and Holy Family.
“We’re doing our part,” Clayton said. “I feel like we worked so hard and the diocese doesn’t care.”
PTA President Clayton, Kristina Pascucci, 37, and Joanna Mass, 42, all mothers of two children in the school, hope to keep their kids in a Catholic school.
But the school hit its minimum ideal enrollment of 220, set by the diocese, only once, in its first school year of 2006-2007, Sorci said.
A diocesan press release announcing the closing attributed it to declining enrollment and financial strains by some of the supporting parishes. Diocesan spokeswoman Rayanne Bennett said the diocese had no comment beyond the press release.
Sorci attributed enrollment decline to families being financially impacted and temporarily uprooted in 2012’s Super Storm Sandy, along with the school being high-risk for closing.
“There was an uncertainty, ‘Why should we put our child in a school that could close?’” Sorci said.
Another problem, Sorci said, was geographic location: Raritan Bay to the north, Atlantic Ocean to the east, meaning there was not a great radius to recruit Catholic children of elementary school age.
School Board President Drake, meanwhile, retains hope to keep Mother Teresa or an offshoot going.
“There’s a lot of excitement about closing the door and opening another door,” Drake said. “It’s important to gather our thoughts.
“We have to be tactful,” Drake said. “Everybody calm down” – and, then, maybe approach the diocese.
“We’ve discussed charter,” Drake said. “That’s a possibility.”
The process to form a charter school, which uses public money, must be approved by the state Department of Education. A charter school, assuming everything went smoothly, could not be put in place until at least the 2017-2018 school year, said David Saenz Jr., an education department spokesman.
Off the table is forming a privately operated Catholic school because the money is not there, Drake said.
National Catholic Schools Week is Sunday, Jan. 31, to Saturday, Feb. 6. – and was being celebrated at Mother Teresa.
“It’s just that we’re not going to open next year,” said Sorci. “It’s sad.”