St. Mary’s School unfortunately closed it’s doors last June. I covered the town hall meeting. Many things were discovered and discussed that night. Bishop David O’Connell of the Diocese of Trenton, did not give our school a chance. Much of the public never heard the true reasons behind the school closing. I hope that this blog posting will shed some light on it.

The school building is now being used for Religious Education classes on Sundays. My daughter is in the second grade and is preparing for her First Holy Communion. Walking into the building for the first time since it’s closing made me very sad. I’m used to seeing it fully used as a school with the children’s artwork and progress being presented in the halls and the church’s weekly bulletin.

Our community has carried on, those that attended St. Mary’s have had to go to other Catholic schools or some are now in public schools.

My view is that St. Mary’s wasn’t given a fair chance to talk to Bishop O’Connell, and that this will be part of his legacy. Not giving others the chance to speak and for him to listen.

WHY IS SAINT MARY SCHOOL CLOSING?

TOWN HALL MEETING
Tuesday, March 26 at 7PM
Carslake Community Center
324 Farnsworth Ave,
Bordentown, NJ

A Presentation by SAVE SAINT MARY SCHOOL
Open to the Public

On March 8, 2013, the Diocese of Trenton suddenly announced that the St. Mary School would be closing in June due to declining enrollments, despite Bishop David O’Connell’s promise that no school would be closed this year, or at least until completion of a comprehensive Diocese-wide school sustainability study in May.

Bishop O’Connell has also stated that, if any school is to be closed “…it will be done with the awareness of all involved, parents, teachers, etc.” (O’Connell’s monthly webcast, “The Shepherd’s Voice” – 03FEB2013)

SAVE SAINT MARY SCHOOL (“SSMS”) is a grassroots coalition of school parents and alumni that has volunteered to conduct its own investigation of the school closing announcement, and to develop a strategic plan that will return the school to solvency and position it for a sustainable future.

On Tuesday, March 12 in front of a public audience, representatives of Bishop O’Connell and the Diocese of Trenton Office of Education agreed to grant SSMS an audience with the Bishop to present these findings and recommendations in the second week of April. Two days later the request by SSMS for a date and time for this meeting was denied, and a second written request was denied earlier this week. On Thursday, March 21 a letter was sent home with all students stating that the Bishop’s decision was final and that the school will close.

We are sincerely shocked and disappointed by the lack of due process, communication, tolerance and respect for our sincere efforts to preserve a school that has been serving this community for almost 125 years.

Additionally, our fact-finding has revealed a disturbing pattern of manipulation and mismanagement that has clearly contributed to the school’s financial condition.

To see the video presentation from the Town Hall Meeting held on Tuesday, March 26th. This is what they found out about the school closing and how it could have been saved.

http://www.deirdreryanphotography.com/blog/2014/1/grassroot-efforts-to-save-160-year-old

Many from the local news media came to cover the event. NBC News Philadelphia, The Trenton Times, Philly.com and my paper, The Register News.
Save St. Mary School group blames ‘negligent financial stewardship’ for Diocese of Trenton’s closure plan

Parents pushing to keep Bordentown parish school open
Community Fights Back Against School Closing
And then finally this:
June 1, 2013

To the members of Saint Mary Parish and School,

It is with sincere disappointment and regret that the Save Saint Mary School Committee is announcing the end of our campaign. After much hard work and prayerful consideration, we
have concluded that it is impossible for the school to remain open. Our disappointment stems from the harsh reality that this school closure could have been entirely prevented, and by how
callously this parish and school community has been treated by our supposed leaders. If you have concern for the future of Saint Mary parish and/or Catholic education, particularly within the Diocese of Trenton, we strongly encourage you to read this letter in its entirety and consider taking action in whatever manner you see fit.

On March 10, in a newspaper article, Bishop David O’Connell cited low enrollment and fundraising as the reasons for the closure of Saint Mary School, going further to state that the school was no longer sustainable. It should be noted that, to our knowledge, Bishop O’Connell has never once set foot in the school. So like a physician simply reading the patient charts and making a prognosis, he deemed that our condition was terminal and that we would be taken off life support at the end of the year. But the truth is that Bishop O’Connell and his subordinates had only succeeded in diagnosing the symptoms, yet to this day have still not addressed the disease.

Our disease, our cancer, is the incompetence, negligence and intolerance that permeate throughout the parish business offices and up to the Diocese. Over the past two decades the
finances of the parish and school have been driven into veritable ruin. While a knowledgeable, humble and dedicated spiritual leader, Father Mike Burns possesses absolutely no financial
training nor expertise, nor has he exhibited the organizational and management skills required to run a parish, school and cemetery that combined represent over a one million dollar non-profit institution. There have been virtually no financial controls, accounting processes nor best practices, investment/endowment plans, nor transparency measures in place during his tenure.
According to a 2009 diocesan audit of the parish, the parish financial committee did not meet once during the entire year because there was no parish financial committee. It was Father Mike’s responsibility to ensure that this committee existed to provide both financial counsel and oversight. Additionally, Father Mike’s chosen and trusted business administrator, Deacon DavidHarris, lacks any credible financial training and has exhibited contemptible behavior throughout his employment. We have uncovered evidence of extreme incompetence, negligence and potentially even malfeasance on his part. This includes instances of tax fraud, discrepancies in parish collection totals, overbilling for office hours and personal sick time and vacation time,
sleeping during paid office hours, overcharging teachers for required benefits that were not issued, off-the-books cash transactions, missing maintenance receipts (as well as the supplies that were supposedly purchased), harassment of parish and Diocesan employees, and failed Diocesan audits, and more. For example, the 2012 audit of the parish cemetery included the following statement from the diocese :

“The parish cemetery, located within the confines of Bordentown Cemetery…suffers the indignity of ‘out of sight, out of mind’ by the parish leadership…musical chairs seems to be the exercise in searching for cemetery information, with each person questioned indicating no knowledge and pointing to another who has no information and then continues the process until the inquirer simply gives up in frustration.

To read more please go to http://www.deirdreryanphotography.com/blog/2014/1/grassroot-efforts-to-save-160-year-old