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Happening ... in the Local Church
 The
pledge drive under way at Sacred Heart School will help address
immediate needs and build an endowment for the future. (File photos) |
 |
By Kevin Cullen
The
Catholic Moment
FOWLER — As it enters a new decade, Sacred Heart School is launching an annual pledge drive to address immediate needs and build an endowment for the future.
“We are experiencing the same financial difficulties as families, businesses and other schools throughout our country,” Principal Terri Goodman said. “… I am confident that we will overcome this obstacle.”
“We’re in definite need,” said John Gick, a member of the parish finance council. “We are nowhere close to being self-sufficient. The parish has seen the school as a mission, but because of the cost of insurance, we’re starting to outpace our income.”
Initial results are encouraging, he said. The immediate goal is $75,000 and a recent parish appeal had generated $47,000 as of Jan. 5.
“We are trying to get on this before we end up with major problems,” said Gick, who has two children in the school, and an older daughter who graduated last year. “We are trying to get in front of this, and we have some great people working on it.
“We just need everybody to step up. If we can get everybody to shoulder part of the load, the load is not heavy at all.”
A multi-pronged attack is in the works: in-school cost savings; the parish solicitation; an appeal to out-of-town alumni, and a public relations campaign focusing on the lifelong value of a Sacred Heart education. That could increase enrollment and tuition income. The school is open to Catholic and non-Catholic students.
All donations are tax-deductible. Cuts will be necessary if not enough money is raised, Goodman said.
“The ultimate goal is to continue our mission of providing a high-quality Catholic education to our children,” she said.
Enrollment in grades kindergarten through six is 94, which is about average, Goodman said. In 2000-01, before tuition was initiated, enrollment was 138. Tuition is $1,650 a year for the first child in grades K-6, with discounts for each additional child.
Sacred Heart School, a Benton County institution since 1891, also offers pre-kindergarten. Many older parishioners remember Sacred Heart Academy, which was built in 1909 and served as a combination grade school, boarding school, high school and business school. Grades one through 12 were offered until 1930. The present grade school replaced it in 1958.
Gick and Dwight Snethen made an initial appeal to parishioners recently. Snethen, president of the School Advisory Board, has two children in the school.
Donations made specifically to the school will help cover classroom expenses and operational costs. They also will reduce the need for major tuition increases, which could help increase overall enrollment.
A staff vacancy was not filled this year to save money. In addition, teachers have offered to shift funds that would typically go to classroom expenses to the pledge drive.
Sacred Heart School has a reputation for graduating successful students, Gick and Snethen said, noting that success is defined “not only by career path, but by a sense of faith, family, compassion and generosity.”
Sacred Heart students tend to score well in English and math in the state ISTEP tests, they said. And on average, at least 25 percent of those who earn academic honors diplomas from Benton Central High School are Sacred Heart graduates, though they form far less than a quarter of the senior class.
Donations are being sought “from outside the town of Fowler, from alumni, and Catholic people who appreciate Catholic education,” Snethen said.
Gick noted that for years, no tuition was charged. The many families and alumni who benefited from that system will be asked to “give back” now.
Many Catholic grade schools now rely heavily on alumni support.
“We have only 300-plus families (in the parish),” Gick said. “If we can get the alumni to kick in a little bit, it will make a huge difference. One problem is trying to get current addresses to get in contact with them. We don’t have a good mailing list, but we have three or four people heading up an alumni campaign to put the list together.”
He said he has been pleased with the education that his children have received at Sacred Heart.
Catholic values instilled at home have been reinforced, he said. Academic excellence, discipline, respect and good manners have been stressed.
“We expect more,” Gick said. “When you talk to teachers at the high school, they can pick out our kids. Our daughter, who is now a seventh-grader (in the local public school) said it’s amazing when teachers ask questions; every one of the Sacred Heart kids has his hand up.”
Mass is celebrated each school day. By serving as lectors, students learn to speak in public and develop leadership skills, he said.
“They don’t know they are being molded, but that really molds them,” Gick said.
“You hate to see such a great thing suffer,” Snethen said. “My son is 9, and for the last one or two years he has been lectoring. I would never have done that at his age. I don’t like doing it at my age.”
For more information, visit www.sacredheartfowler.org, call 765-884-0710, e-mail shs@sacredheartsite.com, or write Sacred Heart School, 607 N. Washington Ave., Fowler, IN 47944.