The State of Catholic Schools 2009

"We did freeze salaries for this year to try to keep costs for our families and the school manageable," said Joe Mallett, principal of St. Joseph School in Conway.

According to several principals, subjects like art, music, computer and physical education were the hardest hit areas. Those duties were added to the responsibilities of the classroom teachers or a volunteer.

With interest rates lower, schools were not able to rely on their endowment funds to provide scholarship assistance.

"The church subsidy helped cover the cost of scholarships, which are usually covered by the endowment fund," said Kathy House, principal at Christ the King School in Little Rock, which is the largest Catholic school in the state with 727 students.

"Our congregation has stepped up to help by contributing generously to the scholarship fund, which allows several of our students to attend St. John's that could not otherwise afford to do so," said Teresa Kobs, administrator of St. John School in Russellville.

Statewide, enrollment dropped 4 percent from the 2008-2009 school year to the 2009-2010 school year. Private schools enrollment across the state is holding steady. According to the Arkansas Nonpublic School Accrediting Association, enrollment for the 97 schools, including the 31 Catholic schools, dropped 1/2 percent from 20,542 in 2008-2009 to 20,651 in 2009-2010.

Overall, 23 of the diocese's 31 elementary and secondary schools dropped in enrollment. Fourteen of those schools reported an 8-percent decrease or greater. The largest decreases occurred at:

Holy Rosary School is the smallest school in the diocese with 39 students in pre-K3 to fifth grade. Principal Kathy Lorince is used to operating a small school with few resources. She doubles as the first and second grade teacher as well.

A drop of 16 students for many schools would not be a cause for alarm, but in Stuttgart the loss meant a 29-percent decrease in enrollment.

"Holy Rosary School is in the heart of the Delta and farming region," Lorince said. "The economy downturn has hurt us financially. The employment opportunities here are not on the increase."

The school suffered the biggest losses when most of the fifth and sixth graders decided to go to the public school across the street.

"Not all of them chose to go, but we could not have a class of three (students)," Lorince said. "We offered (fifth and sixth grade), but they chose not to come."

If all of the fourth and fifth graders from last year stayed at the school, the school's enrollment would have stayed the same, she said.

To address some of the budget issues, a 3-year-old program was added and one full-time teacher now only works part-time.

Denise Troutman, administrator of North Little Rock Catholic Academy, said the 12-percent decrease in enrollment has challenged the inner-city school, which was already operating on a tight budget. The school receives no financial subsidy from St. Mary Church.

"We fight to stay in the black," she said. "We depend on the tuition, fundraisers and donations. All of the donations go to scholarships."

Twenty-six of the 232 students receive partial scholarships. The scholarships increased $8,000 over last school year.

When the part-time art teacher decided to return to school, Troutman said she decided to not fill that position. Art is now incorporated into each grade with the classroom teachers leading the projects.

To alleviate some of the strain, Troutman chose to cut her own salary in half.

"I am making less than a lot of my teachers," said Troutman, a 17-year veteran. "I will probably do that for the rest of the time I am here."

The librarian also chose to take a pay cut in order to buy more books.

Ann Morrison, interim principal at St. Vincent de Paul School in Rogers, said the school stayed at the same staffing level and gave raises when they renewed contracts this spring, but now the administration can see they are probably overstaffed, particularly in its middle school where most of its enrollment decreases occurred.

"We are still in the black, but we won't finish that way," she said.

The school, which added an eighth grade two years ago and has seen enrollment increases as northwest Arkansas grew, is now faced with 52 fewer students. In August the school reported having 325 students, but in the past two months five students have already dropped out because they moved outside of Rogers or because of financial problems.

"We have people who don't want to say it's economics, but we know it is," Morrison said.

The school usually welcomes about 20 new families to the school each year, but this year there were only about 10 families, she said.

"People are hurting," she said. "They want to be here and they are sacrificing."

Morrison said the school board is preparing a plan to present to pastor Msgr. David LeSieur. The plan will likely include adding more fundraisers to the calendar in 2010.

"We are probably going to be looking at not doing (teacher) raises and doing a staff reduction," Morrison said of the 2010-2011 school year.

To make up some shortfalls, schools are looking more than ever to fundraisers. North Little Rock Catholic Academy has at least eight fundraisers a year. The school will even stay open during the two-week Christmas break to bring in a few extra dollars and serve the working parents who need child care. Troutman said the first fundraiser for the fall -- wrapping paper sales -- was down by $2,000.

"Another issue of the economy (is) parents who are working to keep their children in Catholic schools find it more difficult to reach the goal of the fundraiser," she said.

George Robertson, principal at Immaculate Conception School in North Little Rock, said the school's rummage sale in the summer was a success.

"Due to the economy, many people were looking for bargains," he said.

Robertson said he has seen his teachers eager to sacrifice to help the school. This summer they made 13,000 lunches a week for needy school children.

"Some of the money they made was used to purchase technology items for the school, and some was put aside so the teachers can attend the National Catholic Educational Association 2011 conference in New Orleans," he said.

Vernell Bowen, superintendent for Catholic schools, said she believes the schools need to start looking more closely at their marketing plans. Usually, the focus is placed on bringing in new students to the school, but Bowen said the schools also need to look at ways to retain their students.

"We are really emphasizing retention as well as recruitment," she said.

With more empty desks in schools across the state, Bowen said she hopes schools will consider creative ways to recruit and retain lower-income and minority students who would benefit greatly from a Catholic education but could not afford the full tuition. The idea would be financially feasible because the school has already paid for the teacher salaries, desks and textbooks, she said.

"We really need to fill the seats," she said. "Who are the people who really need the tuition assistance? The poor. Your cost is not going up to take them in at a reduced rate. That is supposed to be our mission anyway -- ministering to the poor.

"If you really want to make a difference, we need to educate students who don't have the opportunities they need."

Bowen said when schools are looking at making cuts, she hopes they are not in the area of teacher salaries.

"I would hope if they are at the minimum (salary scale), they would not freeze their salaries," she said. "Public school salaries will keep going up so they need to be careful so they will not lose good, quality teachers."

Bowen admits in early spring she was concerned that another school or two could close.

"Right now they seem to be holding their own remarkably well," she said. "I don't look for any to close, but in January and February we will know better the financial status of each school."

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