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Home  / News & Publications /  Michigan Catholic News / 2010 /  A matter of survival

by Jared Field of The Michigan Catholic
Published January 29, 2010

DETROIT — Sharon Perko couldn’t hold back her tears as she spoke about parents so desperate to keep their children in a Catholic school that they would do almost anything.

“I’m totally impressed with them,” said Perko, principal of St. Bartholomew School, now the only Catholic elementary school on the city’s east side. “Sometimes they work two and three jobs (to keep their children enrolled).”

Like so many Catholic schools, city and suburban, Perko’s school is struggling with lagging enrollment and decreased funds due to the nation’s worst economy with Detroit as its epicenter.

For Perko, a member of St. Anne Parish in Warren, maintaining enrollment was a matter of survival and she knew she needed help.

Her school, a member of the Skillman Foundation, a private grant-making foundation in Detroit, was fortunate that help was on the way, and in the form of an all-volunteer army.

Neil Hitz, a successful businessman and consultant from Beverly Hills and member of St. Regis Parish in Bloomfield Hills, retired in 1997 and felt called to serve Catholic organizations in any way he could.

He worked with Most Holy Trinity School in Detroit through the Detroit Executive Service Corporation, a 30-year-old non-profit organization in southeast Michigan, as a consultant. He spent a year with school officials helping them adopt a marketing plan and teaching them how to run a school more like a business. Thereafter, he became a walking, talking answer to prayer for Perko.

Perko met Hitz back in 2008 when he and other members of the University of Notre Dame Club of Detroit’s School Assistance Program came and toured the school.

With the blessing of the Archdiocese of Detroit, she asked them if they could help with the school’s marketing and she met with them every two weeks for a year.

She found people to join a marketing committee – parents, parishioners, grandparents of students, teachers, etc. – and began the process of working to breathe life into the school.

Hitz says that marketing Catholic education isn’t what it used to be, and that schools need to operate like businesses now more than ever. \

“For Catholic schools in the past, all that was necessary was to open the doors, put a cross on the building, and the kids arrived,” said Hitz, who admitted that many principals are teachers are not necessarily experienced in the business and marketing components of education.

With the help of Hitz, Chris Walsh, Pete Higgins (also of the Notre Dame Club) and other members of the community, the school was able to set up a development fund and fund-raising drive to contribute to the coffers.

The group started doing outreach in the community, calling on neighbors, friends and retirees for help. They marketed their school to anyone who would listen, including non-Catholic churches in the area.

Perko even counted on her teachers to make calls during their planning hours to drum up financial support for the school.

Donations came into the school from numerous sources including individuals, businesses, churches and organizations.

“Through the help of these men … we were able to help about 25 families this year,” said Perko, who used new funds primarily for tuition assistance. “The first year was very successful. From there, we now know what we’re doing and we can build for the coming years.

“We couldn’t survive without the help … the guys have been invaluable to us. We wish we could have them forever.”

The help
After laying the groundwork for cooperation in the community, Hitz moved on to other projects leaving Walsh and Higgins to continue the program’s work with the school.

Walsh knows that clearly-defined processes often lead to better results, and proudly carries around his ever-bourgeoning handbook of charts, steps and minutes – a sort of schematic for successful schools in tough economic times.

“We provide an overall process and go through a number of steps,” said Walsh , 72, semi-retired from a long career in marketing at Eastman Kodak and member of St. Ambrose Parish in Grosse Pointe. “Our point is that we facilitate; we don’t bring solutions. We try to establish a process within the school that will allow them to increase enrollment and raise funds.”

Perko said she knew that the responsibility was ultimately with the school, but that the men weren’t afraid to get their hands dirty.

“They just didn’t look in and tell us what to do,” Perko said. “They’re part of it; they work with us; they aren’t just cheerleaders on the sidelines.”

The program has assisted 10 schools in the Archdiocese of Detroit, from Erie to Port Huron, with what has become a six-month engagement aimed at reviving struggling Catholic schools.

“Each school and parish is different; we’re gaining information with each engagement,” Walsh said. “We want to enable the schools to help themselves in order to sustain themselves. When we walk away they have a process for increasing enrollment and a process for raising funds on an annual basis. It’s not a Band-Aid. It’s something they can fall back on and do on a yearly basis.”

Walsh says that part of the process involve developing an alumni base of support for the school, in much the same way universities, such as Notre Dame, do. “You have to raise awareness in the parish of how important the school is,” he said. “There’s always talent in the parish. It’s just a question of communication and identifying what the school brings to the parish.

“What we’re talking about is attainable, but you have to build a base of overall awareness and communication.”

Walsh says that having a framework in place is pivotal before anything else can happen, and then you can raise the bar.

“You have to know where you are and where you’re going before you start filling in the blanks,” he said. “You have to have the workers … the commitment. And secondly you have to have the internal drive from the right people in the parish to say that ‘we’re going to make this work.’”

Walsh says he has seen schools create structures to raise funds comparable to what colleges and non-profit organizations have.

At St. Bartholomew, Walsh sees success and hopes the school can build on it.

“They’re moving forward,” he said. “They aren’t flush, but they’ve improved their system and they’ve been able to do some things they haven’t been able to do before.”

Walsh says his work with schools is compelled by his desire to give back, and to stem the tide of Catholic schools being forced to close their doors.

“It’s very disturbing,” he said. “If you’ve seen the statistics in the last 10 years, 20 percent have gone away. I know from my own experience and the important thing (a Catholic education) was to me. I’d hate to see that go away.”

“I just can’t turn my back on them”
Maintaining enrollment is a constant struggle at St. Bartholomew, the last Catholic school standing in a once vibrant area replete with industrial jobs.

It’s a regular occurrence for Perko to meet with parents interested in the school, or at the least wanting to keep their students out of Detroit’s public schools, who simply can’t afford it.

“We’ve had so many express interest in the school … they come, fill out papers and then realize that it’s $300 a month and there’s no way they can come up with that,” Perko said. “It’s a matter of putting food on the table or educating your child. You know which way to go.”

Perko has tried to be as compassionate and flexible as possible, and says the school still collects tuition payments dating back years.

“We’re willing to work with them,” she said. “It’s sad and I just can’t turn my back on them. They want something better.”

Perko said that as recent as the early 1990s, the school had a yearly enrollment average of nearly 150.

Since 2001, however, the numbers have fallen off dramatically even with the closure of St. Jude, a nearby Catholic school, two years ago. This year she has 88 students, six more than last.

Perko is committed to seeing St. Bartholomew weather the storm, and not follow St. Jude into closure.

“It’s a huge responsibility for Catholic schools,” Perko said. “We’re a sign and symbol to people that the Catholic Church cares, and we have to shine at what we do.”

Perko says she will continue to be inspired by the parents who are willing to do whatever takes to put their children in an environment rife with academic integrity and adherence to God-centered principles.

“Not to get on a soapbox, but this is a Catholic school and Christ is here,” Perko said.

Hitz takes the stakes a step further. He says he believes that with fewer schools, parishes will begin to see fewer Catholic-educated students and, as a result, fewer parishioners.

“(Catholic schools) are important to the future of Catholicism,” he said.