LEOMINSTER– St. Bernard’s Central Catholic High School in Fitchburg took a major step toward becoming an independent Catholic school on Friday when it officially opened its first checking account at Rollstone Bank in Leominster.
“We’re extremely excited to deposit the initial check, which will open the accounts so St. Bernard’s moving forward is operating independently — essentially creating a brand new school,” said Nick Pelletier, a 2005 graduate of the school and treasurer of the Bernardian Charitable Foundation.
The initial deposit made by the school was $5,000, but nearly 40 donors have already committed over $850,000 to the campaign, said Pelletier.
“For us this is really symbolic of the start of our future,” said Linda Anderson, the school’s principal. “The whole point of it being an independent school is we oversee our own finances (…) this is a pretty big step down that road.”
Rollstone Bank CEO Martin Connors also presented school officials with a $25,000 check on Friday to support the upcoming shift toward privatization.
In November, the trustees and the Bernardian Charitable Foundation announced its “All In: Campaign for St. Bernard’s High School,” which seeks to raise over $2 million to secure the school’s future.
“We have more to raise,” said Pelletier. “We’re very excited about the announcement today that Rollstone Bank will be our newest donor. ”
In May, concerns over St. Bernard’s future prompted by financial losses and declining enrollment led the Diocese of Worcester to announce it wouldn’t be able to afford to subsidize the school if enrollment dropped below 100.
With enrollment currently exceeding that number, the school will remain open and funded by the diocese for one more year.
The diocese is still working with a team to privatize the school starting in fall 2020. Privatization absolves the diocese of responsibility for the school’s finances and operations.
In the last decade, enrollment has dropped from 434 students to 133 at the school.
While it’s only December, the school is seeing evidence that enrollment is moving in the right direction.
“We’re on really good track so far with enrollment,” said Anderson. “We have more interest now than we had in recent years by far. zit’s a great sign and we just need to keep riding that wave forward.”
“The interest in St. Bernard’s continues to grow and we’ve been seeing that in the past month or so,” said Pelletier. “One of our big goals is to make St. Bernard’s affordable to anyone that truly wants to come to the school.”
Progress since the spring has been impressive, said officials.
Through the work of volunteers with a breadth of expertise, a new corporate entity has been created, a board of trustees has been recruited to oversee the strategic plan and overall operations, and committees have formed to work on all major aspects of the transition, including academics, finance, alumni relations, marketing, athletics, facilities, and development.
“Every step of the process is further confirming that this is a successful process,” he said. “It provides us with more confidence that we will be open on July 1st and we’ll be a school that meets the needs of students.”
St. Bernard’s High School was founded in 1920 as a commercial high school for young women, housed in the basement of the former St. Bernard’s Girls School on Middle Street, and was operated by the Sisters of the Presentation. In 1927, the school on Harvard Street was opened.
"deposit" - Google News
December 21, 2019 at 03:55AM
https://ift.tt/2SgkNlI
St. Bernard’s takes step toward independence, deposits first check - Sentinel & Enterprise
"deposit" - Google News
https://ift.tt/350q5oO
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
No comments:
Post a Comment