Subsidies to St. Peter H.S. detailed
By Chris Donahue
Staff Writer
NEW BRUNSWICK — Diocesan officials provided details of the $7.3 million in subsidies it has given to St. Peter the Apostle High School over the past 20 years as well as the effort it made to increase funding and enrollment in a meeting with parents and staff March 1.
Citing the enormous expense needed to keep the parochial high school open, Bishop Paul G. Bootkoski announced Feb. 12 that it will close in June.
During the 2-1/2 hour meeting, Thomas G. Toolan, director of finance, and Msgr. Michael J. Corona, executive director of education, also reiterated the diocese’s commitment to help St. Peter’s students continue their Catholic education at one of the other five secondary schools in the diocese and to keep St. Peter the Apostle Elementary School open.
In remarks and responses to questions from parents of students and some alumni, Toolan cited a three-page financial profile of the school, which was available to all who attended the meeting. The profile included money the diocese has given to St. Peter the Apostle High School in payment of operating expenses for the high school since the 1991-92 fiscal year.
The diocese’s subsidies to the high school actually began in 1985-86, when it gave the school $50,000, Toolan said, and has accumulated a total of $7.3 million.
The parish has received an additional $1.3 million in subsidies from the diocese to run the elementary school, Toolan said, adding that it also borrowed $2 million from its cemetery to pay school operating costs. That loan has not been repaid.
Diocesan officials also cited the three-year efforts of a diocesan-paid school consulting firm, Catholics School Management, and two unsuccessful five-year-plans submitted by the parish and school.
Besides these proposals to save the school in the last 10 years, other efforts included converting it to a Cristo Rey school and moving it to the site of the now-closed St. Pius X High School in Piscataway. Both ideas were rejected by the parish, Msgr. Corona said.
Of the 160 students at St. Peter the Apostle High School, 42 percent receive various degrees of tuition assistance, said Msgr. Corona, a 1959 graduate of the school who later worked as a teacher and director there.
“We are shutting down St. Peter’s High School but we are not shutting down Catholic education for the children who are here,” Msgr. Corona said. “If they want to attend a Catholic high school in the Diocese of Metuchen, every one of them will be offered a seat in those schools.
“At what cost? What the tuition is going to be plus whatever scholarships we can give,” he continued. “The bottom line is the kids may not be educated in this building, but they will get a Catholic education.”
Responding to a question he received in an e-mail regarding the diocese spending “$12 million at Bishop Ahr High School to build a new building,” Msgr. Corona said it was a loan that is being repaid. “The subsidy that has been given to St. Peter High School does not have to be paid back,” Msgr. Corona said. “It was never a loan. It was a subsidy; a commitment to Catholic education here in New Brunswick.”
When a question was asked regarding the sale of the high school property, Toolan said any money earned from a real estate deal would be the parish’s.
Because of its commitment to Catholic education in New Brunswick, the diocese has been working with principals from both St. Peter the Apostle Elementary School and St. Mary School for two years to strengthen those institutions, Msgr. Corona said.
There are currently no plans to close either school, he said.
*The attached/referenced article was originally published in The Catholic Spirit, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Metuchen, and is protected under U.S. and international copyright law