St. Katharine Drexel Academy, a Catholic TK-8 school in El Cerrito, will close at the end of the school year. The school community was unable to raise enough money and enroll enough new students to keep it open.
The Catholic Diocese of San Diego told them in October that they had until Feb. 1 to raise $500,000 and enroll 30 new students.
They raised $114,000 and no new students enrolled.
Steve Carter, whose children attend the school, said the experience brought the community together.
“Had that community not been there, had that sense of pride not been there, it would have been very easy to just say, once that letter came out, ‘Okay, we're going to a different school,’” he said. “But this community was really important to us. It means a lot to us. Hopefully we all stay together, even though we're going to all be dispersed to different schools.”
In a letter to the school sent Wednesday, the diocese said the school faced a $400,000 deficit. The diocese had covered the school’s deficits in the past. In October, Superintendent Leticia Oseguera told the school community they no longer could.
“Efforts to increase fundraising have not yielded the needed funds to cover such deficits,” she wrote in October. “Because of this, the diocese has had to subsidize deficits in previous years. Unfortunately, given the fact that the diocese has filed for bankruptcy, it is no longer able to cover the deficit.”
The diocese filed for bankruptcy last summer after hundreds of alleged sexual abuse victims sued.
St. Katharine Drexel Academy is connected to the diocese rather than a parish. Most Catholic schools in San Diego are connected to a parish, and those parishes often make financial contributions.
“As we've gone to these other schools, we have seen that these other schools have business development leads. They have marketing leads. They have a more robust front office,” Carter said. “St. Katharine Drexel did not have that.”
The diocese said students who stay at St. Katharine Drexel through the end of the school year will receive a $1,000 tuition discount at another Catholic school for next year.
“This isn't anything anybody is happy about,” said Kevin Eckery, a spokesperson for the diocese. “We hope that the students and families will take advantage of other Catholic schools in the community.”
Eckery said the $102,000 raised through major donations will go back to the donors.
Parents also raised more than $12,000 through a GoFundMe campaign. Carter said they’re figuring out how best to spend it. He said ideas include an end of the year celebration, additional field trips and offsetting eighth grade graduation fees.
