OUR VIEW: Shocking news about St. Luke’s money crisis
Published: July 1, 2009
Updated: July 1, 2009
» It would be a major blow if Culpeper’s largest private school is forced to close due to funding.
To balance the books in a recession, everyone has to scale back. And as reported in Sunday’s Star-Exponent, private schools share the pain when families cut costs.
With enrollment down and more parents opting for public education, it has left schools like St. Luke’s Lutheran, Epiphany Catholic and Culpeper Christian scrambling to make ends meet.
It’s so bad at St. Luke’s that the school must overcome its worst financial crisis in its 30-year history. Facing a reported $300,000 shortfall, teachers have yet to receive contracts and administrators don’t even know if the school will reopen.
St. Luke’s says it needs to raise a mind-boggling $300,000 by the end of this week just to cover operating costs for the coming year. Those affiliated with the school have been aggressive and optimistic in their fundraising, and we sure hope they can pull off a miracle. But until the economy improves, this could be a long-term struggle with a sad ending for many private schools across the country.
Epiphany and Culpeper Christian aren’t facing quite the same financial urgency, but they acknowledge the times are challenging. If St. Luke’s fails, will we see greater demand at these two schools, or will another private school take its place? It’s a gut-wrenching scenario nobody wants to think about, but the community should be prepared.
Parents with children in Culpeper’s private schools rave about the quality of education and how their students have flourished. These schools fill a need, and it would be a real shame if any of them were forced to close. Let’s keep St. Luke’s in our prayers.
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We have long known that Germanna Community College provides quality education to people of all ages. That quality has again shown in increasing enrollment.
Germanna is the state’s fastest-growing community college for the second year in a row, as its yearly credit course enrollment jumped by 11.4 percent for 2008-09, with almost 14,000 taking classes now.
Way to grow, Germanna.
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Reader Reactions
I also attended St. Luke’s for about 2 years, and agree with wildcat. The teachers, staff, and curriculum were outstanding. Before attending St. Luke’s, I attended Culpeper Public school for 8 years. I learned more in the 2 years I attended St. Lukes, than I did in the 8 years I was in public school. It would be heart breaking to see such an outstanding school in our community close. Not to mention the jobs that would be lost with the economy the way it is.
I attended St. Luke’s from 1st through 9th grade, and I have to say that the staff, the curriculum, and most importantly, the teachers are outstanding. The instruction and the life lessons that I received at St. Luke’s allowed me to obtain scholarships towards my high school and my collegiate education. Despite having unquestionably “qualified educators” at the high school and collegiate level, I cannot even compare them to the men and women at St. Luke’s who served as my educators and my role models. It would be a tragedy for the children of the area and for the Culpeper community to lose a school like St. Luke’s.
I have two kids at STL and the teachers are excellent. It will be very sad if we loose a wonderful school like STL.
We sent two of our children to St. Lukes first and were not happy with the teachers , school’s attitude or curriculum. Then to Graves, in Orange, and then about 4 years ago we made a conscious decision to move to public education. While my wife teaches in Prince William we are extremely pleased with the results in Culpeper’s public schools, the recommendation my our point of view is removetenure in school system and offer competitive pay for Culpeper. Our change to public education in Culpeper was not mandated by money, but by attitude. I haven’t tried Epiphany so I can’t comment. Don’t be so sure the migration from St. Lukes is solely to public education, as we maintain contact with a few families that left St. Lukes. Our advices to St. Lukes focus less on money and more on learning by qualified educators.
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