BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News [Buffalo NY]
October 19, 2023
By Ben Tsujimoto
There’s reason for concern about the future of Catholic elementary education in Western New York.
Strains are well-publicized – present and future litigation and settlement costs of the bankruptcy case following 900 sex abuse claims against the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, a significant decrease in subsidies by the diocese and steep enrollment declines over the last decade – but the extent of the anxiety is open to debate among current and past leadership in the diocese’s education sphere.
Their general mission is the same: that a faith-based Catholic education remains available for Western New York children amid a time of turmoil and rebuilding trust within the Catholic Church.
But they do not agree how to get there.
Michael LaFever, retired superintendent of Catholic schools in the Buffalo Diocese, paints a bleak picture that recently closed schools in Wellsville and Springville represent the start of a rapid descent unless urgent actions are taken to raise funds.
“Am I disappointed that my own diocese is not supporting the schools financially while giving millions of dollars to lawyers for bankruptcy? Yeah, I’m disappointed in that,” LaFever said, referring to when the diocese cut back its $4.1 million subsidy to about $460,000 in 2021. “I’m very unhappy about that.”
He leads the nonprofit Catholic Children’s Learning Corporation with a volunteer board of directors; they intend to raise seed money to start a for-profit company in order to generate sustainable income for elementary schools.
“There’s generations of Catholics and non-Catholics who benefited from a Catholic education that don’t know that their former schools are in serious trouble,” LaFever said in September. His goal is to raise $2 million to start or invest in businesses, with the first $2 million in profit split evenly between Catholic Academy of West Buffalo and the North Chautauqua Academy.
“The schools need the help now,” he said. “The clock is ticking, we’re running out of time to save these schools.”
Timothy D. Uhl, the current superintendent, describes a less calamitous landscape, with enrollment increasing this year in 18 of the 31 Catholic elementary schools. There are short- and long-term plans in place to give the schools greater viability.
“Some schools are pinched – they’re under pressure of enrollment and finances,” Uhl said. “But I wouldn’t say it’s a systemwide crisis.”
John J. Hurley, longtime president of Canisius College (now Canisius University) and new board of trustees chairman at Catholic Academy of West Buffalo, said messaging must be done carefully.
“Don’t push the panic button more than we need,” he said this month.
LaFever’s plan
LaFever, who retired as superintendent in August 2020, said relief from Catholic elementary schools’ Paycheck Protection Program loans is ending, and it’s imperative something sustainable – not annual appeals to donors – fills the void. Tuition for elementary students is about $4,000 per year, he said – a deterrent to recruiting.
“Is Catholic education going to be available only to the people who can afford it, like a private school, or will it continue its mission of serving all populations of young people?” LaFever asks.
Of specific concern are regional Catholic schools – only eight remain in Western New York – as they do not have the inherent support of the 24 parish schools, which can raise money from their church congregations. But if regional schools close, they can create deserts of Catholic education like in Allegany County after the closure of Immaculate Conception in June. Genesee and Chautauqua counties each have just one elementary Catholic school left.
The Catholic Children’s Learning Corporation, which LaFever started in 2019 when he was still superintendent, is open to virtually any opportunity once seed money is raised, as long as it doesn’t stray from Catholic tenets.
LaFever said he hopes to invest in successful businesses whose owners approach retirement and lack a succession plan. He’s considered starting a classic car restoration business as a resource for 35 classic car clubs in the area. Even taking on a franchise restaurant like Jersey Mike’s is a possibility.
“It’s not a new model,” LaFever said. “This has been going on since almost the Dark Ages when you had Franciscans running breweries or the Benedictines doing banking. No one just came along and said to every order of nuns and priests, ‘We’re just going to give you money because you’re nice people.’ They had to go to work.”
Acquiring property is another potential moneymaker. LaFever plans to speak with banks about acquiring ghost houses. “Turn those over to us: We can start a company to rehab them and create affordable housing for young families who can’t afford this housing market,” he said. People can donate property to CCLC and receive full market value as a tax write-off, the former superintendent added.
There’s precedent, too. LaFever cited a Catholic supporter in Olean who previously supplied living space to Japanese foreign exchange students attending Archbishop Walsh, an elementary school that recently merged with Southern Tier Catholic School at a new site. With the house no longer needed for its original purpose, the benefactor has rented out the house to raise money for the combined school.
LaFever knows the Catholic Children’s Learning Corporation will not cure all financial ills – some tuition will be necessary – but it could reduce the financial burden on regional schools and perhaps eventually help parish schools.
“I’ve had this model for three years, I believe in it, I think it can work, but if my fellow Catholics and my fellow non-Catholics who’ve had the grace of having this education didn’t value it enough to step up and help us, I don’t know what else to do,” LaFever said.
Buffalo Diocese’s plan
Bishop Michael Fisher issued a pastoral letter to parishes in late September, acknowledging a troubled history but reinforcing education’s place in Catholic discipleship.
“While it’s certainly true that failures occurred, and that some young lives were ill-served by their experiences of Catholic education, it was the sense of communal obligation and the shared commitment to invigorate the learning process with faith that we must somehow revive and reclaim,” Fisher wrote.
“Pastors and parish administrators alone are inadequate to the challenge of sustaining a school. It requires the collective determination of the entire community not only to gather and direct the resources – financial and otherwise – but to prioritize Catholic education as an indispensable ministry that reflects the very essence of what it means to be a community of faith in Jesus Christ and fulfill our obligation to evangelize.”
Uhl, superintendent since April 2021, said Fisher’s letter was “music to his ears” in emphasizing elementary education even as the diocese’s Road to Renewal includes parish reorganization. For its 31 schools and roughly 6,800 students in prekindergarten through eighth grade, the superintendent has a three-pronged approach: continue Star assessments to measure student growth and tailor curriculum; work diligently through the seven-year accreditation process with Middle States, which will bolster the reputation of the schools; and reform school board governance to give a voice to community members.
Catholic elementary schools in Buffalo have persevered. Catholic Academy of West Buffalo merged two years ago with Our Lady of Black Rock and has grown its population of English Language Learners, said Hurley, the former Canisius president who served as a consultant with the academy prior to his new role.
Hurley has encouraged the academy to focus on “outcomes,” or student achievement after leaving the elementary schools, as a recruitment tool. As area charter schools grow in number and size, the student recruitment landscape is daunting – the state Catholic Conference has pushed back on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s support for charters.
St. Joseph University School, at 3275 Main St. near University at Buffalo South Campus, draws a significant number of its students from neighborhoods in Buffalo’s East Side and receives strong support from its parish. It’s one of the schools participating in STREAM, the diocese’s career-focused curriculum that includes science, technology, religion, engineering, the arts and mathematics.
Increasing enrollment is the “name of the game,” Hurley said; he said tuition revenues account for at least 80% of the school’s budget. Catholic schools are not eligible for state aid but may receive grants for specific programs.
Uhl, Hurley and LaFever extoled the efforts of the BISON Children’s Scholarship Fund, which provides scholarships to low-income students at partner schools, many of which are Catholic elementary.
The “individualized, personal education” is a “value proposition” vital for parents to evaluate, Hurley said. Catholic schools teach accountability and discipline, which help students resolve conflicts amicably in a city where youth fighting has raised alarm. Smaller schools give more flexibility; in order to bump reading scores for first graders, Catholic Academy of West Buffalo pivoted to smaller class sizes for greater individual attention.
These schools lean on “incredibly dedicated” teachers who are not paid commensurate with their efforts, Hurley and LaFever said separately. “It’s truly a vocational calling,” Hurley said.
The diocese will be restricted on spending toward elementary education until after bankruptcy proceedings, said spokesperson Joseph Martone, but Fisher has “committed some level of support” for schools once it has concluded.
Where the plans diverge
Positive signs at local Catholic schools and systemwide improvement plans suggest to Uhl the future can be bright, or at least not as dim as LaFever believes.
“It’s a pessimistic marketing campaign to generate interest – and it’s a little more bleak than reality,” Uhl said. He’s not impressed with CCLC’s early returns, either.
“I haven’t seen much progress from his model in two years,” Uhl said.
LaFever said he presented his plan to the diocese initially and explained their hesitance.
“They didn’t understand the model of what we were trying to do,” LaFever said. “They were nervous about businesses they wouldn’t approve of or wouldn’t feel comfortable with.”
Hurley said it would be possible for LaFever’s approach to help, but not an easy feat in itself. “It’s tough to run a profitable business,” Hurley said. “This isn’t the godsend.”
If the solution is sustainable income from Catholic-run businesses or booming enrollment due to an accredited education, Catholic elementary schools need financial security to remain viable against stiff competition from schools that can offer free tuition, turf athletic fields and better-compensated teachers.
LaFever, Uhl and Hurley are all fighting for solutions, though, because they know the quality of a Catholic education and do not want to see it vanish.
“To have something centered in students’ lives to help them focus on really what’s more important, to put them in an environment where they can experience and value that – that is important,” LaFever said.