Walsh 500 raising funds

The Development Office at Walsh has undertaken a fundraising campaign called the Walsh 500. The goal of the effort is to obtain the commitment of at least 500 individuals to donate $1,000 to the school each year for the next five years. According to JP Butler (see elsewhere in this blog), since early March the school has received donations and pledges from alumni and friends of more than $300,000 for over the next five years. That puts the campaign at about 13% of the total goal of $2.5 million over five years. I'm hoping JP will report gains here as the campaign advances.

Questions to alumni and friends: Did you receive one of the letters asking you to join the Walsh 500? How about one of the phone calls via the phone-athon underway in April? If you haven't been contacted yet, and you're inclined to participate, give Walsh a call. If ever there was a time to call, it appears that now is that time.

It's nice to see people respond to this expressed need. Even so, I believe I would find the requests more attractive if I had some sense of the projected operating budget for each of the upcoming five years? Surely the rising cost of fuel has affected the school's expenses, as has been the case for individual household and business expenses. What other factors are in play as administrators develop a budget? So, what does it cost to operate this school for a year, especially in the face of declining enrollments. Even if recruiting efforts are very successful in the first year, what is the optimal enrollment? What will it take in bodies to reach this state? Increases on the order of 30%, 50% or more? While a 100% increase in enrollment sounds great as a percentage, that's still well below the total student population when AWHS was at its peak.

So, I find myself asking, even as the need has been identified and expressed: Whither comes the optimism?

Saving Catholic Schools

The Thomas B. Fordham Institute in Ohio has issued a report, "Who Will Save America's Urban Catholic Schools?" This is interesting reading for anyone interested in saving Archbishop Walsh High School.

Of particular note, seen in the executive summary on case-study findings (Page 5), is the idea that the primary causes of massive Catholic School closures have been demographics and economics.

While some cities actually are opening new Catholic high schools (as recently announced here in Austin, TX), demographics and economics are decidedly large factors in such growth.

In the case of AWHS, if the large circumstances of demographics (too few students, fewer parishes) and economics (higher costs for salaries and for fuel to warm facilities and run buses), the question remains: What next? What say you?