Notre Dame Catholic School closing

When teachers at Notre Dame Catholic School received the bad news last week, they gave their students an extra-long recess outdoors, and cried.

Then they pulled themselves together and threw the Valentine's Day party the children were expecting.

After more than 150 years of offering catechism instruction along with reading, writing and arithmetic, Notre Dame Catholic School in Marysville will graduate its last eighth-grade class this year.

It opened as the College of Notre Dame in 1856.

Officials from the Diocese of Sacramento announced their decision last week to close the K-8 parochial school after the school year.

"The school was built for 300 students and now it only has 64," said Kevin Eckery, spokesman for the diocese.

"Financially, there just was not enough support," said Notre Dame's principal, Dr. Paul Broughton.

According to the school's teachers, fewer and fewer parents in the area have been able to afford the annual $3,450 tuition per student.

Notre Dame had as many as 188 students just four years ago.

"The economics of this area are a big part" of the decline, said Bronwyn Eisermann, 33, the school's kindergarten teacher.

Declining enrollment has made running the private school exorbitantly expensive, said Eckery.

Similar conclusions have been drawn in cities across the country.

According to the National Catholic Education Association, enrollment in Catholic elementary schools nationally has dropped 15 percent since the 2001-02 school year.

More than 212 U.S. Catholic schools closed or consolidated during the 2006-07 school year alone, according to NCEA numbers.

The scope of this trend does nothing to comfort Kelly Kemmerly, 42, parent to two current Notre Dame students as well as a part-time teacher there.

Mere mention of the 2007 Blessing of the Animals — an annual event for the school — brought tears to her eyes.

"We didn't even know it, but that was our last one," she said.

Broughton and an advisory board made up of parents and students already have begun the process of trying to create a new public charter school within the Marysville Joint Unified School District.

Hopefully, Broughton said, "we'll be able to continue the school, but without the religious instruction."

The group will model the charter school on one in Paradise that has a similar history and population, Broughton said.

Eisermann, Kemmerly and the school's other teachers say they support the charter school idea, and that they will teach at the new school, if it comes to fruition.

Like many others who work or volunteer at Notre Dame, Eisermann attended the school herself. She returned to teach 10 years ago upon graduating college.

Losing the school, she said, "is like a death."

Notre Dame "has its own spirit," said Broughton. "We'd really like to be able to continue that."

Academy Talk

An organizational meeting to discuss the establishment of Notre Dame Academy will be held at 6 p.m. Friday in the Janet Wales Room of Notre Dame Catholic School, 715 C St., Marysville.

The presentation will include a proposal, overview of the planned curriculum, goals and expectations of the proposed charter school within the Marysville school district, and a question-and-answer session for the parents of current Notre Dame students.

Contact reporter Nancy Pasternack at 749-4712 or at npasternack@appealdemocrat.com