February 7, 2009
Loretto High School to close
Declining enrollment forces religious order into decision
By Denise MacLachlan
Herald staff
Four Loretto High School seniors in the library Jan. 27 consider the implications of the school’s closing. Left to right: Katie Broussard, who will study political science at University of Nevada at Reno; Jessica Palka, who will major in biology at California State University, Sacramento; Jes Papilla, who will study public policy at Brown University; and Niki O’Neal, who will major in film studies at UC Santa Cruz. Cathy Joyce/Herald photo
Declining enrollment, resulting from a sharp economic downturn and competition from other private and public high schools has forced the closure of Loretto High School in Sacramento after more than 50 years in the diocese.
Loretto Sister Helen Timothy, school president, and Loretto Sister Rosemary Lynch, provincial of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the religious order based in Wheaton, Ill., that owns and operates the school, announced Jan. 27 that Loretto would close at the end of the school year in June.
“People are having to choose between paying their mortgages and paying tuition,” Sister Timothy said at a press conference at the high school. “There have been economic downturns before, but they haven’t been this pervasive. This downturn is touching everything, and it doesn’t look like it will be turning around soon.”
Sister Timothy, who has been an administrator at the school since 1992 and is a 1970 Loretto alumna, noted that the religious order cannot afford to carry increasing debt while waiting for the economy to improve. The order plans to sell the campus to retire the school debt.
School enrollment is at 389 students this year, down from 559 three years ago. The current student body includes 127 seniors, but only 73 freshmen.
The announcement came just three days after eighth grade students in the diocese seeking admission to a Catholic high school sat for high school placement exams at the school of their choice. Only 87 students sat for the exam at Loretto High School. Of those students only 56 could have attended the school, according to Loretto principal Jocelyn Barboza.
“Often students take the exam hoping for the financial assistance to attend,” said Barboza, who has been principal since 2007 and at the school for 22 years as a teacher and administrator. She is a 1966 Loretto alumna.
Tuition at Loretto High School is $11,275, with fees bringing the total to about $12,000.
Nearly 100 of the school’s 389 students currently receive tuition assistance. The average tuition assistance award is about $3,000.
Over the summer an unprecedented 28 families withdrew their daughters, almost all citing financial hardship, Barboza said, and two more families withdrew during the school year. Usually the school sees about six non-returning families in a year, she added.
“The economic downturn has been quicker and more severe than we expected,” Barboza said. Enrollment is also down in the Catholic elementary schools that usually send their graduates to Loretto, she added, and the school is competing with charter schools that give families an alternative to traditional public schools.
Some families are applying to International Baccalaureate programs at nearby public high schools as an affordable alternative to private education, she said.
Loretto is a college preparatory school that places all of its graduates in colleges and universities, Barboza noted, usually directly into four-year colleges.
“This is an excellent academic institution, but we no longer have enough students to maintain our programs,” she said. “Loretto is committed to educating the whole woman — through academics, sports, performing arts and student activities. Having too few students weakens the quality of the program.”
The school’s closure will also be a loss of resources to students beyond its campus. This year students from Jesuit High School in Carmichael travel to the Loretto campus each morning to join Loretto students in AP calculus BC (advanced placement, college board level), the college-level calculus course that follows AP calculus AB, Barboza noted.
Sister Timothy said that the IBVM community had been considering closure for the past two years and had developed several contingency plans. They waited until the placement test to make their final decision, she said, because they couldn’t know how many girls would sit for the exam until it took place.
After the Saturday exam, the school administration and the IBVM community made the decision to close the school, then notified the school staff the following Monday to give employees as much notice as possible to find new jobs, Sister Timothy said.
Loretto students learned the news on Jan. 27.
Sophomores Veronica Denne and Caroline Calkin said that students began picking up rumors of the school closing on Facebook pages and through text messages, ahead of the school’s official announcement at an 11 a.m. school assembly.
Some of the students were already crying at the assembly before school officials made the announcement, Denne said. After the announcement, the girls started singing “We Are Family,” which made everybody cry, she said.
Several seniors were considering the implications of the school’s closure on campus on the afternoon of Jan. 27. Jessica Palka said she thought that the situation was worse for the people employed at the school, who will have to find new jobs in the depressed economy, and for the school’s juniors, who will have to graduate somewhere else after three years at Loretto.
Jes Papilla said she had served on the recruitment team this year and that she felt bad for the girls the team had spoken to, building up the school that the girls will never attend.
Senior Niki O’Neal said, “Even if this school is gone, we’re still part of IBVM. We’re part of the greater worldwide community.”
Papilla agreed, adding, “Just because this school closes doesn’t mean Mary Ward’s spirit and ministry is going to end with this campus.”
Mary Ward is the woman who founded the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1609 as an independent, educated, self-governing community of women religious, free of the confines of the cloister, dedicated to serving the people of the community, according to the order’s Web site, www.ibvm.org.
In addition to Sister Timothy, three other Loretto sisters continue to serve in the Sacramento area: Sister Judy Illig, a Loretto alumna of 1959, and Sister Jane McKirchy at Wellspring Women’s Center in Oak Park, and Sister Arlene Connelly, principal of Holy Family School in Citrus Heights. Three other retired Loretto sisters live in the area and continue to volunteer in the community.
Administrators of St. Francis High School and Christian Brothers High School in Sacramento have offered to accept as many displaced Loretto students as they can next fall.
Principal Andreas Agos of St. Francis High School said Feb. 2 before an information meeting that evening for Loretto families that the school should be able to take at least 75 Loretto students.
The school’s policy is to accept 25 transfer students, so those spaces are open, he noted. By fitting two or three temporary buildings onto the already at-capacity campus, school administrators believe they can accommodate another 50 students, he added, and St. Francis will give priority to transferring Loretto students.
An information meeting for Loretto families was scheduled for Feb. 3 at Christian Brothers High School. San Juan Unified School District officials also announced that they have extended their high school enrollment period to accommodate displaced Loretto students.
Thirty-two teachers, six administrators, and 19 support staff members will be left unemployed at the school’s closing.
Dom Puglisi, superintendent of Catholic schools for the Diocese of Sacramento, said that his department would assist every Loretto teacher who would like to continue teaching at a Catholic school. The Catholic School Department oversees primarily elementary schools so the positions compatible with high school teaching will be in the junior high range, but Loretto teachers will be interviewed for any position they apply for, he noted.
Puglisi added that although the diocese has seen a steady decline in enrollment in Catholic elementary schools, this is the first year there has been an overall decline in high school enrollment.
“Economics is a strong part of the decline,” he said.
Supporters hope to keep school open
By Herald staff
Bishop Jaime Soto has asked a committee of parents and alumnae of Loretto High School to develop a plan to keep the all-girls school open.
The steering committee is now working on a business plan
under the direction of the bishop.
“The diocese and the Catholic School Department will provide support,
but the onus for the plan is on the parents,” said Kevin Eckery, spokesman
for the diocese.
In an earlier statement on Jan. 29, the bishop said he would “welcome an effort by a strong committee of members of the Loretto family to present a viable business plan to sustain a Catholic school for young women.”
Loretto supporters held a pep rally at the school Jan. 30 attended by hundreds of parents, current students and alumnae, many who gave testimonials about the 54-year-old school.
The steering committee has directed people to its Web site at www.savelorettolions.com for news and information about its efforts to save the school.
“A groundswell of support has emerged to save Loretto from closure,” says a message from the committee posted on the Web site.
“Our top priority is to minimize disruption to the current and future students of Loretto High School and provide them with an opportunity for Catholic education that carries and keeps the spirit of Loretto alive.
“In partnership with the Sacramento Diocese, we are exploring every viable option that will allow for the continuation of this important educational institution for girls,” the message concludes.
