Catholic Schools of Sioux City proposes closing two schools

By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
March 4, 2004

The Catholic Schools of Sioux City will present a new plan for the school system to the school board at their meeting later this month.

Parents of students in the Catholic Schools of Sioux City and interested parishioners were invited to Heelan High School on Feb. 29 to learn the details of the proposed plan, which may involve the closing of one school and its two centers and the restructuring of another school and its two centers. There were three meetings in which parents and interested parishioners were informed of the proposed plan and allowed to ask questions.

The school buildings to be closed would be the Holy Family School's St. Joseph and St. Boniface Centers.

"Nobody likes to close schools," said Father Patrick Walsh, president of CSSC. "I suppose it would be nice to say that we don't have to change, but looking at the realities of the situation, we have to make some kind of changes. If we want to continue to operate, we have to take some steps to make sure that can happen."

In the plan, Holy Cross School would realign its two centers. St. Michael Center would house a kindergarten through second grade building and Blessed Sacrament would serve as a third through eighth grade building.

These changes would mean cutting five teaching positions and two principals.

The new plan is being proposed due to the CSSC budget needing to be reconfigured. At the meeting, parishioners were told there has been a decrease in parish contributions and enrollment in recent years. Therefore a change needed to be presented to the board. Enrollment in the 1998-1999 school year was 2,287 students and this year is 1,862 students.

"As the donations go down, so does the support that we get for the schools," said Dave Newbrough, CSSC business manager at the meeting. "In this year's budget, we are going to see a decrease of about $110,000 in the parish investments."

Students will be invited to go to Sacred Heart School, Mater Dei School - Nativity or Immaculate Conception Centers or Holy Cross School - St. Michael or Blessed Sacrament Centers. The hope is that the 172 students from Holy Family would relocate to the other schools in CSSC.

Another part of the proposal is to raise tuition for the high school and grade school students $150. This would make grade school tuition $1,800 and high school $2,700.

"We think that there will be no difference in the quality of education," said Father Walsh. "It is something that we can do, and something we need to do because it will save over half a million dollars. I don't mean that's money in the bank. I mean we avoid going into debt."

During the meeting, attendees were shown two different budgets and each was explained. The first budget didn't include the school closings, but did include everything that people were wishing could happen. The second budget included the school closings and will be the budget presented to the school board.

"I think we have to make these changes to ensure that if we want to be here 10 years from now, we have to do the things that are necessary to make our future possible," said Father Walsh.