OLGC school in Fonda to close

By RENEE WEBB, Globe editor
March 11, 2004

FONDA - An era of Catholic school education will come to an end this spring in Fonda. The school board for Our Lady of Good Counsel School and the parish finance council voted on March 1 to close the school at the end of the year.

Father Thomas Hart, pastor at OLGC, pointed out that when he arrived in the parish in 2001, there already were rumors that the school was closing. For a number of years, parishioners have been well aware that the number of students was low.

"Next year we were looking at even lower numbers - probably in the 30s for kindergarten through eighth grades - nine grades. We presently have 47 students," he explained. "This makes the cost per pupil very high."

Another factor that put the school closing option on the front burner was a fall visit by the fire marshal. In order to comply with requirements of the state fire safety report, the school could not reopen next fall for classes unless it submitted a plan of correction that included a new fire alarm system and doors for the stairwells.

"Here we have a building that is 88 years old and we were looking at a rough cost of $38,000 to put all of this in," said Father Hart.

Jim Miller, a 1971 graduate of OLGC High School, is a parent of a sixth grade student at the school and a member of the parish finance council. In the summer of 1975, he coached the final baseball team for the high school, which closed that year. It served the community for 67 years.

Having served on the school board for six years he is aware that talk of closing the school has been around for a number of years. Even determining if the school would open was coming down to a year-to-year task.

"The first year I was on the board, we were never going to go below 70 students. Then we were never going to go below 60. Our projections for next year were 39 and with a big increase in tuition, we probably would not have gotten that many," said Miller.

As a parent, he was beginning to question if this was the best possible education due to a lack of socialization and healthy student competition with the small enrollment.

In the letter that the pastor sent to parents and parishioners of OLGC and St. Columbkille, Father Hart described the decision to close the school as heart-rending. He wrote, "It was a hard decision, a tear-filled decision, a decision that makes a change in our lives."

While it was not an easy decision, he stressed that he believes it was the right decision and a decision that had to be made.

Miller mentioned that he cried on the way home from the meeting. Coincidentally, his father was on the school board in 1975 when they voted to close the high school.

"I remember him telling me that that was the toughest decision he ever had to make. I finally had the true meaning of that Monday night. I knew exactly what he meant," he said. "You have to have walked the halls of a Catholic school to fully understand what they mean."

The school's smallest class is two students in the second grade, with the largest being seven students in the eighth grade. Between OLGC Parish in Fonda and St. Columbkille Church in Varina there is only one more second grade student who is enrolled in parish religious education classes.

They agreed that much of the problem with low numbers has to do with the fact that as the number of small family farms decrease, there are less children in these rural areas. Even the public schools have the same dilemma.

Father Hart mentioned that he has been working with the public school principal. The public school will be able to accommodate the Catholic school students because they have also experienced declining enrollment in recent years. Some families may also consider attending a Catholic school in Pocahontas or Storm Lake.

"The parishioners of Our Lady of Good Counsel have been so faithful in making Catholic education an integral part of their parish community that the realization that they must look for an alternate method of delivery for their children's faith formation causes them a great deal of pain," acknowledged Kevin Vickery, superintendent of Catholic education for the Diocese of Sioux City.

He views this as an opportunity for the parish to recommit and refocus on faith formation not only for all students of the parish, but also the adults.

Father Hart said that is exactly what OLGC and St. Columbkille plan to do. He said the parishes plan to enliven the parish religious education program and are looking at possibly incorporating intergenerational ministry in to their parish communities.

In his letter to the people, Father Hart wrote, "Sometimes as we walk through the journey of life we have pain, suffering and change; Jesus shows us through his passion and death on the cross, that first comes the pain and suffering, then comes the new life and glory. We now will focus on and look for the new life that will come our way for our families and parishes."

Miller, who is considering become a catechist for the parish education program, said their goal now is to offer one of the best religious education programs in the diocese.

Both Father Hart and Miller said that OLGC school has impacted many lives through the years. They believe the school will live on through the hundreds of students it educated.

Catholic school education was established in the parish in 1908 when five Franciscan sisters from Mount St. Clare in Clinton opened a school in September of that year with 45 pupils. The present school building was opened in January of 1917.

The parish will keep the building for use as a parish religious education center.

Father Hart and Miller extended thanks to the school board and the Parent Task Force for their hard work, dedication and leadership through the years. They applauded these individuals for keeping the school going for as long as they did. Miller pointed out that the Parent Task Force that mainly consisted of all of the parents who have children in the school raised about $150,000 in the last five years just to keep the school going.