The 6th-though-8th grades at St Mary School in Janesville are safe, temporarily.
The church announced at an informational meeting Wednesday night that they’ve suspended the recommendation to eliminate those classes, but they still have significant financial hurdles to overcome.
Parish Finance Committee member Dave Godek said, between tuition and fundraising, the school essentially has to come up with roughly $550,000 a year to be sustainable moving forward.
To do so through the current tuition rate, the school would need to add at least another 60-to-70 students to its enrollment, according to Godek.
The church revealed they’ve had a burn rate of roughly $70,000 per year over the last decade as the parish has had to overextend itself to keep the school afloat.
Enrollment has remained fairly steady in recent years, according to Department of Instruction data, but it’s lower than they can currently sustain.
Father Robert Butz read a letter from Reverend Monsignor James Bartylla from the Diocese of Madison that gives the parish until next January to come up with an alternative plan to finance their deficit in school funding.
At the end of the meeting, St Mary School principal Matt Parish announced he will not be returning next school year, for reasons unrelated to the school. He said he’s getting married, and he and his bride-to-be are moving to the Appleton area where they already have jobs lined up.
