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On January 18th, 2008, the Diocese of Rochester closed 13 of the 24 elementary schools in Monroe County. Saint Margaret Mary School in Irondequoit was one of those schools that was closed. However, a little crack was opened in the door to allow for each school to provide a plan to the Diocese to keep their school open. The parents of Saint Margaret Mary School are persuing the option to provide a plan to the Diocese to allow SMM School to remain open.
6 comments:
As I rode home last night, I kept thinking about our predicament. We
suddenly have to develop a long term financial plan for the school
without even having actual financial records for the school's past operations. Then I asked, I wonder how other independent private schools make ends meet. When I worked in developing a nature center in Minnesota, I researched the operations budgets of several comparable, existing centers, to verify my assumptions.
Our plan could be bolstered
by having such statistics. That led me to wonder what Archangel
School's budget is. And that led me to a bigger, more out-of-the-box
idea.
Consider a partnership with Archangel School. They could gain from our population and facility, and its proximity to St. Thomas the Apostle. We could gain from their operations and fundraising experience. I don't know their program. Maybe its not possible. Maybe they'd have no interest in moving their program to our building. Maybe the curriculum
differences would be too great.
But we have to think about practicality. If independent, we'd compete with Christ the King and Archangel. If the diocese won't take us into the system, then we're independent. Partnering with Archangel would remove one competitor for students, funders, publicity, etc.
Another business to request funding from is the House of Guitars. Family members have atteneded the school (they may still).
The owners of the House of Guitars are Armand and Bruce Schaubroeck. One of them has a relative currently in Saint Margaret Mary, as I have seen one of the gentlemen at open houses, etc. One or both of them has told me that they attended SMM School. This was when they gave us a substantial discount in renting sound equipment for the SMM Youth Group when "Cheer Up Charlie" came to town. They are wonderful gentlemen and definitely have some "charitable" bones in their bodies.
I like the idea of partnering with Archangel School, or at least "picking their brain" to see what it takes for a small Catholic school to operate independently.
I attended Archangel's open house yesterday, and I was very impressed with what I saw. The classes are smaller than SMM and the tuition is less. The Rochester Business Journal ranks them right up there with the best private schools in the Rochester area.
Archangle has grades K-12, but the number of students in the upper grades is very small because they can not provide the types of activities, such as sports teams, that are available in the larger high schools.
The school hours are from 8:15 am to 2:45 pm and they do not provide before/after school at the present time. The students attend a daily mass either in the gym or at St Josephats Ukranian church (in English).
We are definitely going to consider Archangel as an option if SMM cannot remain open.
Do you know about busing at Arhangel School or lunches?
I'm not sure if this is true for all school districts, but the Rochester City, East Irondequoit, and West Irondequoit school districts provides transportation to public, private, and parochial schools for students living in those districts.
There are certain mileage limitations based on the student's grade. For example, West Irondequoit's mileage limits are:
Grades K-3 All students
Grades 4-6 More than 1.5 miles
Grades 7-8 More than 2 miles
Grades 9-12 More than 3 miles
All levels maximum 15 miles
You need to contact the school district in which you live and fill out out an application, which is due on April first.
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