St. Ann site would be home for new elementary program

By Dennis O’Connor

ST. MARGARET MARY DEANERY — An estimated 400 parishioners, parents, staff and faculty from three schools in this western Cincinnati deanery gathered Nov. 12 at St. Ann Church to hear details of a new proposal that would consolidate three schools into a new regional school to be founded at the location of St. Ann School.

Affected by the proposal, announced by a steering committee early in November, would be St. Therese Little Flower School in Cincinnati, Assumption School in Mt. Healthy and St. Ann School in Groesbeck.

CT/TONY TRIBBLE

The annual "Gravy Bowl" between St. Ann School in Groesbeck and Little Flower School in Cincinnati was held on Thanksgiving Day. The 2007 match-up was the final contest between the two schools on the gridiron.

The committee recommended closing the three schools next June, opening the consolidated school at the St. Ann location in August.

Concerned parents gathered to hear answers to their questions, which ranged from tuition costs and special-education needs to how the process had proceeded.

Father Tom Dennemann, pastor at St. Ann, led the evening with prayer and a note that everyone attending "is invited to participate in committees that will deal" with the execution of details as the proposed consolidation efforts move ahead.

Tim Clifford, business manager at St. Ann Parish, delivered a detailed presentation that outlined the financial challenges the three parishes face in the immediate future if they were to maintain their current school programs. Clifford noted that estimates for enrollment in the coming school year for all three schools at one consolidated location was 732 students, who would be served by a combined faculty and staff of approximately 40 — considerably less than the 66 faculty and staff needed to run the schools at three parish locations.

The most significant bit of data was the overall savings that would be realized from the consolidation: Clifford said that expenses in a status quo environment, where all three current sites remained open, would cost a projected $3.7 million. The consolidation would cost an estimated $1.9 million, an estimated annual savings of about $1.8 million.

"We want to be able to provide the very best kind of Catholic education possible," Father Dennemann told the crowd gathered inside St. Ann Church. "This proposed (structure) will allow us to do so."

Father Robert Goebel, pastor of Little Flower Parish, noted that the location of the current St. Ann School provided the best of all elements for the consolidated, with all classrooms on the ground floor allowing for handicap access. Father Dennemann also explained that with an estimated 14 acres owned by the parish for expansion, the Colerain Township location — situated across the street from a branch of the Cincinnati/Hamilton County Library — would remain viable for many years to come.

"I commend the Saint Margaret Mary Deanery for staying the course," said Marianist Brother Joe Kamis, superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. "They tried to work together to do what’s best for Catholic education in those parishes. We ask that pastors collaborate to provide the best possible solutions, and this is an example of how parishes working together can come up with viable solutions. I think pastors are becoming more aware of the fact that they can’t do it by themselves. And now, we’ve been around long enough to know that regional schools have a great deal of value in delivering quality Catholic education."

A formal proposal for consolidation from the steering committee was forwarded to the Schools Office and Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk at the end of November.