St. Stephen to Close; Merge with St. Thomas

Evan Sasiela ‘14

Co-Editor in Chief

After much speculation and debating between the Saginaw Area Catholic Schools (SACS) board of trustees Bishop Joseph Cistone has decided the future of the elementary schools in the system.

Bishop Cistone has decided that St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Stephen will merge into the St. Thomas Aquinas building beginning in the 2014-2015 school year.

“I am grateful to the Saginaw Area Catholic Schools board members for their dedicated and thoughtful work, as well as the parents who took the time to complete the survey and share their observations and suggestions,” Bishop Cistone said. “Up to my final decision, I held open the possibility of maintaining both school sites, at least for another academic year. In the final analysis, I had to agree with the board’s recommendation that, considering the challenges and limitations which the school system currently faces, their proposal is a more sound and reasonable one. If the schools are to improve in the years ahead, they need to move forward from a position of strength, not weakness. Incurring a substantial debt for the next academic year would have weighed heavy on the system in its outlook for the subsequent year(s).

“I was pleased to see that the considerable majority of parents indicated their willingness to support the merger, whichever school was chosen. As would be expected, most of the written responses expressed the sentiments of parents to choose the school their children are currently enrolled in. However, the survey did indicate that parents believed St. Thomas Aquinas to be the better site. The board members assured me that they will take measures to reach out to those parents who may have reservations about enrolling their children next year.”

St. Thomas was chosen as the building to keep open because it already has a music room and cafeteria. St. Stephen, although first recommended as the building to keep open does not have these certain rooms and will close its doors. St. Stephen’s closing is the first time SACS has closed its elementary schools since they closed St. Helen and Ss. Peter and Paul schools mid-year back in 2010.

The statement says that about 17 staff positions will be laid off between the schools and teachers are welcome to apply for the 22 positions that will be at the new school. Also, SACS has stated that they will not raise the cost of tuition for the upcoming school year. The new school will include a preschool program and will be a PK-8 school.

It has been a downward spiral for SACS and the diocese as schools has seen a decline in enrollment and several churches across the diocese will be shut down from 2013-2015. Bishop Cistone requested that families support the consolidation.

“Finally, I urge all our parents to stand behind this merger. Keep in mind that the children are much more flexible in adapting to such changes than we adults might be. In fact, they will take their lead from us. The decision not to increase tuition was meant to give everyone the ability to remain committed to the school system during these challenging times. If parents choose to send their children to other schools for ideological reasons, or because St. Thomas Aquinas School was the one chosen, or because they feel the Diocese and board let them down, I beg you to remain together. Give each of us an opportunity to pray together and work together in order to make available and to strengthen Catholic education for the foreseeable future.”

Bay Area Catholic Schools has already made the decision to combine their students into the St. James building beginning next year and the school will be called “All Saints Central Elementary.” The high school is also named All Saints Central and the K-12 school in Mount Pleasant is Sacred Heart Academy. Meetings will be held to discuss and determine what, if any changes will be made to the name of St. Thomas once the two schools merge.