St. Stephen School to close

  St. Stephen Parish in Worcester has announced that it will close its pre-K through grade 8 school at the end of the school year this June. Msgr. Robert Johnson, St. Stephen’s pastor, made the announcement after Bishop McManus accepted the recommendation from the school leadership.
“Despite our best efforts, this has been a perfect storm of challenges including the Coronavirus, unemployment and so much uncertainty in the lives of many of our school families,” said Msgr. Johnson. “The enrollment numbers were simply not high enough to be able to continue providing an excellent education to the students while being fiscally responsible as an inner-city parish.”
“While it is never welcome news to have to announce that a Catholic school must close, I want to thank the families, faculty, staff and administration who tried to make it work,” said Bishop McManus. “In the end, there were no options.”
            St. Stephen was facing an enrollment of 112 students for the fall, down by 39 from the 2019-2020 academic year. The added uncertainty, according to Msgr. Johnson, is that some of those parents could also change their minds in the fall if their financial situations took a turn for the worse.
            “St. Stephen Parish, although holding its own as a parish, does not have the finances it had years ago to be able to bear the fiscal burden if there were operational losses next year,” said Msgr. Johnson. “The diocese also made it clear that, given investment losses and its own financial challenges, it could not cover operating losses at individual parish schools.”
            The school sent notices to everyone today informing them of the decision and will now work with the Catholic Schools Office on finding homes in the other Worcester Schools for their students. 
            Tuition for St. Stephen is $5,000 – $5,400 per year and 20% of the students were receiving financial aid.
            St. Stephen School was founded in 1924. Its high school was closed in 1971 after a brief period of being part of the Central Catholic school system.