Fr. Allaire to step down as principal

There will soon be a change made to the administration at Archbishop Walsh High School, Mr. Robert McFarland, president of the board of trustees, recently announced.

Fr. Barry J. Allaire, who has been serving as principal at Walsh since the spring of 2006, will be assigned to the newly-created position of director of religious affairs after the completion of the current school year. Fr. Allaire, a teacher and administrator at Walsh for the last 25 years, will focus on the religious direction of the school while emphasizing the Catholic Church’s mission to students and the greater community. He will continue to have a positive impact and presence at Walsh, McFarland said.

Fr. Allaire will continue to teach various levels of religion, the classical languages and related courses.
The board of trustees also announced that it is currently in the process of finding a successor to Father Allaire. The new principal will be hired to concentrate on the day-to-day administration of the school, Mr. McFarland said.

Potential candidates for the position are asked to send a resume and cover letter to Archbishop Walsh High School, 208 N. 24th Street in Olean, N.Y. The new principal’s appointment will be effective immediately.

Dresser exec joins AWHS board

If you haven't seen this item, you may find it of interest. Just click on the headline above "Dresser exec joins AWHS board" OR scroll down through the following story from the Olean Times Herald

June 18, 2008

Dresser-Rand president

signs on to Archbishop Walsh

Board of Trustees

By JEFF SHAW
Olean Times Herald

OLEAN - In an attempt to keep the school open in the face of major budget cuts, Archbishop Walsh High School is bringing one of Olean’s most prominent businessmen to its Board of Trustees.

Vince R. Volpe Jr., the president and CEO of Dresser-Rand, agreed to join the board after meeting with several of its members Friday. His daughter attended the school. Mr. Volpe was in Europe and unavailable for comment by press time today.

After the Buffalo Diocese of the Catholic Church announced it was cutting back funding to its private schools, Archbishop Walsh faces the possibility of closing due to lack of funds. Mr. Volpe will spearhead the effort to keep the doors to the school open, Board of Trustees President Robert McFarland said.

“He’s very excited about the prospect of helping restructure Walsh,” Mr. McFarland said of Mr. Volpe. “He wants to be very involved with the future path of the school.”

The current goal of the school is to increase enrollment to over 150 students within three years while growing financially and enriching academic and student life, Mr. McFarland said, and Mr. Volpe will help them develop ways to go about reaching that goal.

“(Mr. Volpe) will work with the present Board of Trustees, volunteers and community leaders that have wanted to keep Walsh open and grow the school,” he said.

Besides having business experience, Mr. Volpe is also well connected in the Olean community, Mr. McFarland said.

“We’re working closely with the Diocese of Buffalo and with St. Bonaventure University,” Mr. McFarland said. “Mr. Volpe is a board member at St. Bonaventure as well, so we’ll be working with them even more closely.”

One of Mr. Volpe’s key tasks will be finding ways to keep money coming into the school to keep it open.

“We’ve had ongoing fundraising efforts that showed good success, but Mr. Volpe on board is an important aspect of that,” Mr. McFarland said. “When you get someone that is a name as a community leader, it surely helps in the fundraising effort.”

Father Barry Allaire, the school’s principal, said Mr. Volpe joining the Board of Trustees shows his commitment to alternative education and his belief in improving the Olean area.

“He’s committed to this community and committed to this school,” Father Allaire said.

Walsh 500 and More...

It has now been three months since we kicked off our Walsh 500 campaign and our attempt to obtain the commitment of 500 donors willing to donate $1,000 to the school each year for five years. To date, we have received close to $400,000 in 5-year pledges ($80,000 annually) and another $26,000 in one-time donations. All in all, 162 people and businesses have contributed to the drive in the last 12 weeks, pushing us to about 18 percent of the total goal of $2.5 million.

Unfortunately, Walsh 500 dollars are showing their first signs of tapering off since the campaign began back in March. To help put some life back into the campaign, we plan on using the rest of the school year (graduation is Friday, June 27) to continue to make personal phone calls, write to some of our key alumni and probably send out another mailing. If the money begins to come in at the pace it did in April and May, we should be making it into the next year.

In other news, many parents of our current seniors came together and agreed to donate $300 per family for parking lot repairs before graduation. Most of the senior families are participating, and we've raised enough to patch just about all of the potholes as you make the turn into Walsh off 24th Street. The paving company came by last week to clean out each of the holes and will be returning this Saturday to fill them in.

Also, the alumni newsletter, Walsh World, will be sent out this week and it contains more information on advancement and recruitment, a letter from Fr. Barry, as well as information on this year's Reunion. I know many people have been wondering when the Reunion is going to be held, and the answer is Friday, Aug. 1 right here at the school. The event usually runs from 6-midnight and, as I've stated before, we will hopefully be having a golf tournament the next day. There will be more information about both in the newsletter.

Again, please consider making a donation to the Walsh 500 as try to make sure the school makes it into next school year, and many more school years thereafter. God bless.

J.P. '03