The bell won’t ring again at Riverside’s St. Francis de Sales School.
Parents learned in April that the school would close in June but some mounted a fundraising effort — and a proposal they believed could keep the 107-year-old Catholic school open.
RELATED: Proposal aims to save Riverside’s St. Francis school
Kids went to school Friday, June 6, not knowing if it would be the last day of the year or the last day ever on the downtown campus off Lime Street.
Then hopeful parents received a letter after school Friday from the church pastor announcing the “painful” decision that their proposal would not be accepted.
Classes at St. Francis — one of the city’s oldest schools — were over.
“I appreciate the efforts and heartfelt support of the parent group,” wrote the Rev. Alvaro Palacios Arregui, pastor of St. Francis Catholic Church, which is part of the Diocese of San Bernardino. “I have considered their proposal and after reflection and consultation with school and diocesan leadership I have concluded that this proposal does not respond to reality of Saint Francis de Sales Catholic community. It would not be responsible of me as your Pastor to allow this proposal to move forward.”
The pastor’s letter cited the school’s poor financial situation, which he wrote “has been in decline for many years.” The school required “significant subsidies from parish reserve funds and from the diocese to remain open,” he wrote.
A financially healthy school should have enough tuition revenue to meet expenses and be supported by “vibrant enrollment,” wrote Palacios Arregui, adding that this was not the case for St. Francis.
Parents had expected a decision next week. Those active in the effort to keep the school’s doors open expressed sadness and disappointment late Friday.
Karen Walls, who lives in Nuevo and commuted nearly an hour each morning to St. Francis, said she and her daughter are heartbroken.
“It’s about 50 to 60 minutes in the morning every day… but St. Francis was amazing,” Walls said. “No other school ever compared to what it was.”
Her seventh-grade daughter, who enrolled this school year, had hoped to return. But uncertainty over its future changed the family’s plans.
“She would have stayed,” Walls said. “But with how it was looking, she didn’t think it would be very stable next year.”
Walls was among the group of parents who fought to keep St. Francis open.
“It was a wonderful school, and we’re really sad to see it close,” Walls said. “My oldest daughter started kindergarten there and went all the way through fourth grade. She’s now in college, so there’s a little bit of a history there.”
Walls’ daughter will now enroll at St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic School in Riverside.
The parent group’s plan, which did not include specific numbers, promised that it would raise grant money and scholarship dollars to help financially sustain the school, which had nearly 100 students. They also suggested creation of a nonprofit group to raise money and said several donors had been lined up.
Walls said she was disappointed the diocese “wouldn’t let us do more to try to save the school or didn’t reach out to any of us parents before that first announcement.”
“It was just such a loving, caring, nurturing community of people,” Walls said. “It feels like a family has been broken apart.”
Diocese of San Bernardino spokesperson John Andrews on Friday evening confirmed the school’s closure.
More than 50 of its 96 students enrolled at one of three other Catholic schools in the city: Our Lady of Perpetual Help School, St. Thomas the Apostle School or St. Catherine of Alexandria School, he said.
Some St. Francis school employees have received jobs at other Catholic schools or parishes. Andrews was not sure how the school’s former classrooms would be used.
Julian Valle, a parent who helped lead the campaign, said Friday evening that he felt a mix of emotions.
“Yeah, the kids are happy because it’s the last day of school,” he said. “But this has been going on the whole time we were trying to save the school. They tell us one thing and do another.”
“We jumped through all the hoops,” Valle said. “Got the support and the financials in order. We did everything they wanted us to do. I don’t understand it.”
He said the pastor was supposed to make a final decision next week, but the closure letter came early.
“If that letter went to the bishop and now we’re getting this one back,” Valle said, “That means Bishop (Alberto) Rojas told him to kick rocks.”
David Suarez, who was involved in the save-St. Francis-effort, said in a text message that his second-grade daughter was already going to a different school next year.
“All the kids were crying and sad,” he wrote. “One was nearly hysterical and the remaining teachers were just as emotional.”
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