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02/12/2018 11:00 PMMore than 100 members of the Our Lady of Mercy (OLM) school community, many sporting blue t-shirts with the slogan #OLMStrong, packed into the Guilford Community Center on Feb. 7 to discuss the school’s future. With the shock of the school’s imminent closure and merger with Branford’s St. Mary School (SMS) starting to wear off, the OLM community has mobilized and announced a plan to break with the local parishes and keep OLM at its current location in Madison as an independent Catholic school.
On Jan. 25, parents of students at OLM received an email from school officials informing them the school will close at its current location after this year and join with SMS to form a new East Shoreline Catholic Academy (ESCA) at the current SMS location.
SMS in Branford, part of the Archdiocese of Hartford, was founded in 1961 and serves students pre-K through 8th grade. While there had been no rumblings of SMS losing its home despite low enrollment, OLM, the main Catholic K-8 school serving Madison and Guilford since 1954, was informed in January 2016 by the Sisters of Mercy (SOM) that it would not renew the school’s lease after the 2017-’18 year.
Representatives from SOM said after the initial announcement was made that they held hopes to preserve the land the school currently sits on, possibly through a conservation trust.
Members of the OLM community then formed a vision committee to try and find a new home for the school. In 2017 it was announced that the lease had been extended and the school could stay on until 2023, theoretically giving the community more time to plan for the future of the school. The Jan. 25 email sent to parents, from Rev. Stephen M. Sledesky of Guilford’s St. George Parish and Rev. Daniel J. McLearen of St. Margaret Parish, made it clear that the timeline has been shortened and a decision already made.
The letter details the joining of the two schools at the Branford location on Cedar Street. The parishes of St. George, St. Margaret, and St. John Bosco in Branford will sponsor the new school, ESCA. According to the letter, OLM officials and Vision Committee had been working hard to come up with a new plan for the school but to no avail, resulting in a drop in enrollment and an operating deficit.
At the Feb. 7 parents meeting, community members in the audience were clearly still upset by the news, the way it was released, and the two pastors. However, the Vision Committee presented a new plan to parents to keep OLM alive in Madison.
An Independent Catholic School
Committee members said they had been meeting once a week for two years, had conducted a feasibility study, and had secured a lease extension so they were as shocked as everyone else when the news broke. Committee member John Picard said he understands why people are upset.
“The Catholic Church asks the question—and I am sure you have all heard it—’Why do we have less priests, less nuns, less people going to Mass?’” he said. “Then every action they take is to alienate their constituents. It makes no sense at all. Instead of finding ways to keep the Catholic schools open, they are taking the easy wrongs and just closing them.”
While the announcement has been made to close the school, the Vision Committee has taken on new life and established a path forward.
The Vision Committee’s plan is to separate OLM from the parishes, to become an independent Catholic school. To do so, the school needs an accredited Catholic sponsor (Picard said the committee is already in talks with one interested party), and a board of trustees and governing body to assume the lease with SOM and retain current teachers.
Picard said OLM will continue to provide Catholic-based education, rigorous academics, a fully integrated pre-K-8 model with before-care and after-care, and continued focus on technology in academics. While OLM’s current enrollment is 140, Picard said ensuring a stable future for the school will help make OLM more attractive.
From a financial perspective, Picard said Catholic schools are not historically well managed. By establishing a board of trustees, the school can be run more like a business with long-term planning. Picard said donor pledges are already rolling in and with a good financial model, the school can maintain current tuition fees for the 2018-’19 year, keep the financial assistance program, and provide competitive benefit packages for the staff.
“We are committed to keeping you updated every step of the way with a target of end of March to achieving most of these goals,” said Picard of the plan. “We believe in communication, transparency, and integrity and that is our vision and where we are with the plan.”
Questions and Concerns
With a plan on the table to try and keep OLM alive, parents still have to make a decision about where they might send their children to school next year. Picard said the committee’s feasibility study suggested most OLM parents don’t want to go to Branford, but said he knows there is a lot of anxiety right now.
“I am not saying to wait ‘til the last minute, I am saying give us a chance,” he said. “Don’t feel rushed or feel like you are being pressured.”
Parents asked about the current teachers at OLM. When news broke about the new school being formed, the communication from the pastors said all teachers from OLM and SMS would have to reapply. Picard said OLM teachers would not have to reapply to stay at OLM, but said he realizes teachers need to know the plan sooner rather than later.
“I am sure there are teachers who want to be here, but they do need a job and I am sure there is some delicate pressure being put on them—I don’t know how else to say it,” he said. “We appreciate everything they have done and I am hoping they can hang in there a couple more weeks…I want them to know they are welcome and we are doing everything to get this done so they feel sure that they will have a place here at OLM.”
With the possibility of the school staying in Madison and the new school forming in Branford, committee member Paul Bauer said parents need to understand that there are a lot of unknowns with both schools.
“One of the things I would say is what would you be enrolling in, in Branford?” he said. “What we are told is it’s not St. Mary, it’s a new school, so what is that curriculum? We don’t know. Who is teaching there? We don’t know. What are the programs? We don’t know. So if you are looking at this Branford entity, it’s an unknown and so is this, to be honest, but I don’t think you can make the case that you have a safe choice in one and an unsafe choice in another.”
As one parent pointed out, the pastors and current principal at OLM are moving to the new Branford-based school, a fact a lot of parents did not find comforting. Some also raised the concern over the current length of the lease with SOM. Picard said SOM has been very communicative and has acted in good faith to extend the lease. He said if this new model for OLM is successful, he thinks SOM will come to the table for more discussion.
“I have been told to my face that if we have a thriving Catholic school, they [SOM] will not ask us to leave,” he said. “They said that. That is the key.”
The Endowment
In 2015, OLM received a $4.7 million endowment from the estate of Fred and Rosa Rettich, two longtime Madison residents. When the school closure was announced, questions about what would happen to the money began to swirl. Superintendent of Catholic Schools for the Archdiocese of Hartford Dr. Michael Griffin previously said the money would move with the students to Branford, however relatives of the Rettiches said moving the money goes against the rules of the bequest.
The bequest specifically states that the money is “for OLM at 149 Neck Road or its successor, for its general uses and purposes.” Maria Derblom, Fred Rettich’s sister-in-law, and her daughter, Karina Julius, who attended the meeting. Julius said the money is going to stay in Madison and if OLM closes, the money will be transferred to the Sisters of Notre Dame, an international organization focused on Catholic education.
“We want to be able to see the endowment remain with the school if the school remains at Neck Road,” she said. “We were surprised to read in the paper that the priests were considering moving the money to Branford because Fred didn’t live in Branford. Fred lived in Madison and he was a proponent of Catholic school in Madison.”
Picard said the new plan is not dependent upon the endowment money because, as many parents pointed out, the school has never actually seen the money put to use—not even to build a playground that was supposed to be constructed in the Rettiches’ honor. Despite being the executor of the will, Maria Derblom said she has never been given any records on the health of the endowment, and that she finds the way this whole situation has been handled very upsetting.
“The Rettiches worked very hard, so that somebody should come in and play with that money…I can’t see that,” she said. “No matter what I have to do, I won’t let it go to Branford. Like I said, if the school succeeds, that is where the money stays ,and if it dissolves, I want it to go to the Sisters of Notre Dame.”
OLM parent John Mullane said the community needs to move fast to protect the reputation of OLM and protect the money.
“The way it looks, let’s be honest, with the Catholic Church when money is on the line, the teaching and morals go out the window,” he said. “We have seen it throughout history. The way it looks to the public and the way it looks to me is you have a $5 million endowment—they want to close the school and keep the money. That is the way it looks.”
Town Support and Next Steps
Madison First Selectman Tom Banisch and Guilford First Selectman Matt Hoey attended the meeting to express their support for the OLM community. Banisch said he is disappointed with how this has played out.
“We worked hard through the process with the committee to try and find locations,” he said. “...To have the rug pulled under us like this I think is really a shame. I just want you to know that the people of Madison love OLM being there and we are not going to be happy to see it go away. We wish you the best in everything you are trying to do to maintain it.”
Hoey, an alumni of OLM, said he knows what a vital role OLM plays in the lives of so many Catholic families.
“In my family I was one of five boys and I grew up in Old Saybrook before St. John’s opened up and my family made the commitment to send us to Madison, so I was a commuter from the time I was six years old,” he said. “I know the value, so I am deeply sorry that you folks are facing the possibility of losing something that is so vital to the spirit of your lives and what you believe in. I will lend any support I can.”
Moving forward, Picard said the OLM community needs to rally support, stay engaged, and help support a bright future for the school. If the plan is successful, Picard said stability will help drive enrollment numbers and guarantee an independent catholic school on the shoreline for generations to come.
“If we stick together we will succeed…Lets be a model preK-8 Catholic school that other schools will want to copy,” he said. “…Let people know that we are alive and well and we are not going anywhere.”