Low enrollment closes private school

Donors have offered to help pay off the school’s budget deficit.

By ED RUNYAN

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

HOWLAND — A private K-6 Christian school that began 22 years ago at the Believer’s Christian Fellowship church and moved into the First Baptist Church of Howland five years ago is planning to close.

John Shaffer, vice president of the school’s board of directors, said board members took a 5-0 vote Tuesday to close. “The board decided it cannot continue,” Shaffer said.

Parents of the 36 pupils enrolled for next year were notified of the closing in a letter mailed Wednesday.

The eight full-time and seven part-time employees will continue to receive their pay and benefits through July 31, Shaffer said. The board plans to reimburse advance tuition payments from the pupils by June 30.

Enrollment suffers

The school had enrollment of 56 pupils through most of this year, which was down 33 pupils from the previous year, Shaffer said.

A large percentage of those losses appeared to be the result of job losses and job fears at Delphi Packard and Forum Health, Shaffer said. In some cases, even the job fears of grandparents had an effect, he noted.

However, he added that state statistics show that nonpublic schools in the county have lost 47 percent of their enrollment in the past 10 years. And Word of Life Christian Academy’s problems are apparently part of a larger issue of affording a private school education, he said.

The school had an enrollment of 225 in 1999 when the leadership of BCF told WOLCA board members that the school would need to find a new home because of the church’s need to use the school space for other things. In the spring of 2002, the school board announced that it would close at the end of the school year.

Trying to stay open

But several school board members found a new location at the First Baptist Church of Howland on East Market Street and moved the school there to start the 2002-2003 school year with an enrollment of 101 pupils.

Shaffer said he doesn’t know whether there is new leadership within the current student body as determined to keep the school open as he and other board members were in 2002.

The board has tried since last fall to make parents aware that the school was operating at a deficit despite cost-cutting measures and would need to improve its enrollment numbers to stay open.

“We’ve made it very clear to the parents about the budget and other issues,” Shaffer said.

Between the assets of the school and donors, Shaffer said he believes enough money will be available to pay off the school’s financial obligations.

runyan@vindy.com