St. Mary's 105-year-old school closing

By Tanya Connor
The Catholic Free Press 
There is a lot of anger and sadness about Monday’s unexpected announcement that St. Mary’s Schools is closing, Father Richard W. Polek said Tuesday.  
St. Mary’s, on Richland Street in Worcester, serves about 200 students in pre-kindergarten through grade 12, and is the parish school of Our Lady of Czestochowa Parish, where Father Polek is pastor.  
He said he met last Friday with Bishop McManus, Paul G. Schasel, director of the fiscal affairs office, and David Perda, superintendent of schools regarding the school. 
Father Polek said he left that meeting thinking that the diocese was recommending that the school close, but that the decision was up to him and the parish finance council. The parish council had agreed to take responsibility for any deficit the school would incur next year. 
Father Polek said Tuesday that he misunderstood what was said at the meeting and therefore he announced at Masses last weekend that the school would stay open, but they would need to increase enrollment.
He learned Monday that the bishop’s expectation was that the school would close.
“We’re all just heart-broken,” Monica Campbell, co-principal, told The Catholic Free Press Tuesday, with tears. “We hurt for our kids. A lot of them feel like they don’t have a home.”  
She said a student, who is to be a senior in the fall, asked where she will go to school next year; and said that at St. Mary’s, where everyone gives extra special attention, she could learn and become successful. 
“Catholic schools, particularly high schools, have become nearly impossible to operate by individual parishes,” Bishop McManus said in a press release Monday which announced the closure. “I am truly grateful for the valiant attempts the teachers and staff at St. Mary’s Schools have made in recent years.” 
“I cannot say enough about how grateful we are to the teachers and staff at St. Mary’s Schools,” Father Polek said in the press release. “They have worked very hard and at great personal sacrifice to keep this school open, especially over the past few years.”  
Father Polek told The Catholic Free Press the following about the decision to close the school. 
The school owes the diocese $164,000 for two loans and for paying the school’s insurance bills, Father Polek said.  
The debt had grown over the past few years, and neither the school nor the parish can afford to pay it, he said. 
In addition, because of the coronavirus pandemic, it is not yet known whether schools can open next fall, so some parents might withdraw their children rather than pay tuition to have them learn from home, he said. 
The diocesan Office of Fiscal Affairs asked St. Mary’s to present a balanced budget for next year and the school did so, Father Polek said.  
In addition, he said, he met with his parish finance council May 28, they took a vote and sent the diocese a letter saying they would take responsibility for any deficit the school would have next year.
He said he thinks the diocese did not believe that the school could make it and didn’t want to burden the parish with the financial responsibility.  
Father Polek said the fiscal affairs office and the Catholic Schools Office made a recommendation to Bishop McManus, and the bishop made a recommendation to him, that the school be closed. However, he said he was told that the diocese cannot close a parish school; that it is the parish’s decision. But the Worcester Diocese could not keep paying St. Mary’s bills, he said. 
“The Diocese expressed concerns about finances, building condition, and quality of education,” says a statement on the school’s website. “The administrative team addressed all concerns with a balanced budget, building actions, and continued exceptional educational plans.” It said that “course offerings had been expanded to include elective courses by college faculty and continued cooperation with local colleges, where many of our students matriculate for college classes.”  
“Our future looked brighter than ever,” the website says. “There are many unanswered questions: the first of which is: why are we closed?” 
Father Polek said that Monday morning, after he learned that the bishop’s expectation was that the school would close, he called the school, which informed the families of the closing.  
“I’m a priest and I believe that (the) Holy Spirit works through our bishop,” Father Polek said, adding that the bishop accepted the recommendation of the fiscal affairs and Catholic schools offices. He said he understands that the diocese cannot keep supporting the school. 
But people at the school see the decision as unjust, he said, adding that the school was ready to open next September. Over the weekend, after the closing of St. Stephen Elementary School in Worcester was announced last Friday, St. Mary’s received inquiries from 14 families about enrolling students there, he said.  
“Now there is no Catholic school in this area,” he said.       
St. Mary’s school building will need to be sold and the debt paid to the diocese, Father Polek said. But through the end of August the school office will be open, the staff is being paid, and students are to receive help with transferring to other schools, he said.  
“Our school was founded and built by Polish immigrants in 1915 as a parish school,” with the high school opening in 1936, Father Polek said.  
 But now only 20 or fewer of this year’s approximately 200 students are parishioners, he said. (So far 186 had enrolled for next year, but registrations were still coming in, he said.) 
“So, we are not the parish school anymore in this sense,” he said. “The school served generations of immigrants and I think St. Mary’s fulfilled its role as a parish school. … The school could still serve local residents, but the reality is not all of them are able to pay full tuition.” And the school cannot get help to pay their tuition, he said.
Tuition for St. Mary’s Schools is $4,900 (elementary) and $7,295 (high school) and 40 percent of the students were receiving diocesan financial aid, the press release said. It said 70 percent of the current student body are students of color.