St. Paschal School to close

After 68 years educating Catholic students, St. Paschal Catholic School will close its doors for good on June 12.

The threat of closure had loomed for years as enrollment shrunk, but parents and church members were always able to pull things together. Until now.

“The cost of operations continues to increase,” said Principal Dick Pelkie. “We just don’t have enough kids to warrant continuation of the school.”

In 2006, the Park Road school had 64 students in grades K-8. Now only 50 remain. The threat of closure has been a constant presence for years. At its peak the school had about 200 students, but enrollment has slowly and steadily been going down over the past two decades.

The school is largely supported by tuition, which was set at $3,750 this year. But the actual tuition paid is based on the family’s income, so not everyone was paying full price. The school has regular fundraisers, but was unable to close the gap. “The parish doesn’t have any money either,” Pelkie said. “As much as they would like to help with finances, they just can’t do it right now.”

The school had a couple of meetings with parents in March, outlining the problem. “What we said was that we couldn’t continue to do what we were doing,” he said. When school staff sent out registration packets for the 2008-09 school year, only 25 were returned. Not only would that be too few students to support the school, Pelkie said, but the numbers would be low enough that the school’s ability to provide a good education would be impacted.

“In fairness to the kids, the decision is probably the best decision we could make at this time,” he said. “There’s some sad people, but I think they understand the economics of it.”

Pelkie has been working part time in an effort to save money. “I would feel guilty being a full-time principal to only 50 kids,” he said.

Eighth-grader Garrett Lawless, 14, has attended St. Paschal’s School for nine years. He’s one of three eighth-graders who will make up the final graduating class. “The biggest class I was in was 10,” he said.

Lawless, who will attend Gonzaga Prep in the fall, said he was sad to hear the school was closing even though he will be graduating. “I’ve spent most of my life here,” he said.

Bob Fery, a member of St. Paschal Church since 1967, has three grown children who graduated from the school. “Since I’ve been up here we’ve had St. Paschal School,” he said. “It’s a fact of life that not everything can stay the way they were.”

Fery, who has volunteered at the school for the past few years, will be sorry to see it close. “Sometimes you’ve got to pull the plug,” he said. “It’s just tough to turn situations around. There has been a lot of fond memories at St. Paschal School.”

The school will try to go out in style, making the eighth-grade graduation ceremony on June 6 a farewell to the school. All the students will get honorary diplomas marking their last year at the school, Pelkie said. Alumni are welcome to attend and there will be a picnic after the ceremony.

The Educare program run by the church for children ages 2 to 4 will continue.