More students uprooted from their comfort zone as NJ parochial school shuts down

WAYNE — Teagen Norton is, in a manner of speaking, the victim of a new epidemic.

As Catholic schools in this area shutter one after another, some students like Teagen are forced to be new kids over and over again.

The seventh grader said she was overcome by a feeling of angst when she found out last week that Immaculate Heart of Mary School, where she has been enrolled since fourth grade, will permanently close because its population is going down.

“I was really mad, and so sad,” said Teagen, 12.

She will enter eighth grade in a different school, likely separated from her friends. “I want to graduate with them because this is the longest school that I’ve been to,” she said.

About 400 students were enrolled at the Ratzer Road school when it opened in September 1959, according to a report published at the time by The Herald-News.

It opened on the same day as Our Lady Queen of Peace School in the Hewitt section of West Milford — a Catholic academy that closed due to low enrollment in June 2010.

St. Francis of Assisi School in the Haskell section of Wanaque closed under similar circumstances four years later, followed by St. Catherine of Bologna School in Ringwood four years after that.

Then, St. Mary’s School in Pompton Lakes shut down.

Teagen attended most of them by the time her mother, Erynn Jordan of Wanaque, placed her in the Wayne school. Now she admits that she does not know what to do.

“It’ll be a cold day in hell before I put my kid in another Paterson diocese school,” Jordan said Friday. “They’ll just pick the next one to close.”

Jordan was one of about 50 parents who attended a meeting at the school that afternoon.

Parents were angry and confused over what they called an unexpected decision to close the school for financial reasons next month. Had they known that it was in jeopardy, they said they would have stepped in much earlier to save it.

“It feels like there was an agenda, and we couldn’t see it,” said Isabelle Acevedo of Wayne, who has three sons enrolled at the school.

“This is their home,” she added. “We built a family here — we committed to this family because of these amazing teachers, and now, we’re losing everything.”

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A last-minute effort to bail out the school was made through an online fundraiser over the weekend, with upward of $9,000 pouring in to keep it open for at least one more year.

Meanwhile, an internet petition circulated with signatures of parents calling for the resignation of Mary Baier, the superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Paterson.

Parish officials, including Baier, led the meeting at the school to formally announce its closing and to offer financial aid to families that opt to send their children to another academy in the diocese, which serves Morris, Passaic and Sussex counties.

But some parents said they left there feeling so defeated that they are now rethinking whether Catholic education is the right fit.

Daniel Drake of Wayne said he planned to enroll two children in the pre-K program at the school next year because he wanted them to have a “traditional upbringing.”

“That’s not going to be an option anymore,” Drake said. “How do you have a church if you don’t have a future? You can’t have a future without children.”

Parish officials said “everything possible” was done to allow the school to remain open. However, its declining enrollment was projected to be 135 next year — well below what is needed, they said, to sustain it financially.

The cost of tuition is between $7,750 and $8,000, depending on grade level. Parish officials said the ramifications of such low enrollment are “severe” — after providing an allowance to the school of $224,000, they face a deficit of $375,000.

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“In the midst of sadness, our faith keeps us hopeful,” parish officials said.

“The rich tradition and quality education of Immaculate Heart of Mary School have served many for several generations,” they added. “That is something its administration, faculty, parents, students and parishioners can always be proud of.”

Philip DeVencentis is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: devencentis@northjersey.com