St. Vincent de Paul High School in Petaluma nearing financial ‘breaking point,’ say school leaders

As Petaluma’s only Catholic high school moves toward independence from the local parish, the leadership at St. Vincent de Paul High School is hoping to raise half a million dollars by March 30 to cover operating expenses for the remainder of the school year – part of a larger set of financial concerns the group of local parents and educators is facing.

“We need to make sure that we've got the reserves needed to pay our faculty. That's our most important asset, is our teaching faculty,” said Kerry Pedersen, the school’s director of admissions and marketing as well as freshman academic adviser – and, like many involved in running the 106-year-old school, an alumnus and a parent of students currently attending.

But the $500,000 shortfall – which caught many by surprise when its need was announced via an online fundraiser on Feb. 5 – is part of a bigger issue years in the making, Pedersen said.

“What has changed in recent years, from my understanding, is that the reserves have been depleted to such an extent that we're at that breaking point. And that's (due to) a combination of things,” she said.

Among those factors, Pedersen pointed to a difficult economy making it harder for families to afford St. Vincent’s tuition of just over $20,000 a year. The COVID-19 pandemic also prompted several families to leave school and those losses are still felt.

The financial shortfall is also the result of increased tuition assistance being offered to students, according to a press release issued by the school on Feb. 15.

“It's really hitting the fan, if you will,” Pedersen said.

Independent Catholic school

For more than a century, the relatively small high school of 170 enrolled students and 31 full-time faculty has been managed by the St. Vincent de Paul Parish, which falls under the Diocese of Santa Rosa. But that changed last December, when the school announced it would separate from the parish, though it will remain Catholic with the diocese’s blessing.

At that time, school leaders launched a $3 million online fundraiser to help with the transition toward independence. That money, when raised, will be used "to be more self-sustaining for the future,“ said Lisa Lichty, a member of the school’s newly created interim board and also a St. Vincent parent.

According to Lichty, “We do not anticipate that that three million is anything that is going to be generated immediately. That is the goal for the years to come.”

Meanwhile, the new online fundraiser announced earlier this month has raised just under $87,000 as of Wednesday.

That’s still far short of the $500,000 needed, though better than the original $1.4 million deficit – jointly shared by the school and the parish – that school leaders said they learned about at the start of the school year.

“We were very successful in a lot of fundraising, a lot of cuts in getting to the point where now the remaining deficit is $500,000. That's for the existing school year,” Lichty said.

Still, if the shortfall isn’t met within a few weeks, faculty could suffer, Lichty said, noting that the March 30 deadline was set to “ensure our teachers’ payroll” through June 30.

Other forms of school income, including tuition, are not covering the entire year’s expenses, Lichty said.

According to interim Principal Tony Greco, St. Vincent’s finances have been managed jointly by the school’s finance department and a parish finance committee – an advisory committee that approved both the high school’s and St. Vincent de Paul Elementary School’s finances. (The elementary school remains under parish management.) Moving forward, the high school’s finances will be controlled solely by the independent school board, Greco said.

But that’s only if the current hurdle is cleared. If the fundraiser comes up “a little short,” the school will be able to get by, Lichty said. “But it depends on how far we get” by March 30, she said, noting that with $400,000 to $450,000, “they’ll figure out a way.”

Barring that, “The worst-case scenario would obviously be that the school doesn't make it through another year,” said Sommer Hansen, interim board vice chair and a St. Vincent parent.

“But the best-case scenario is what we're working towards, and that's seeing the school through the end of the year and getting to operate as an independent Catholic school.”

Fundraising is ‘critical’

School fundraising is nothing new, and “something that happens every year and not only at St. Vincent's, at every private school,” Lichty said.

“We are privately funded, we offer a lot of tuition assistance, so it is sometimes a misperception that because we charge for tuition, we have a lot of income. And we do offer a lot of tuition assistance, and so fundraising is something that is a very critical part of the business structure every year.”

School leaders told the Argus-Courier they learned about the deficit at the start of the current school year, before former Principal Patrick Daly was suddenly let go in late August and accused by Father Bill Donahue, pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Petaluma, of making tens of thousands of dollars in unauthorized charges to a school credit card.

Daly, who denied the accusations, was never charged, and Petaluma police said Tuesday that there are no updates in that case.

Meanwhile, the 11-member interim school board, made up of eight parents and three community members, that has been overseeing the school anticipates transition to a permanent board on July 1, Hansen said.

“We are modeling (the board) off of other successful Catholic independent schools. And we want to ensure we do a good job of creating that new governance model,” Hansen said.

Despite the looming financial concerns, school leaders are drawing hope and inspiration from their young charges.

“I feel like our students are pretty resilient because they've had to really face a lot of challenges this year. And if you look at the day to day, I mean, kids are smiling,” Greco said.

The “regular day-to-day operations” have continued for the students, he said. “I think our faculty and staff and our admin have done an incredible job just really staying positive and giving them a real positive year.”

He added that school leaders have been keeping parents “in the loop” with explanatory meetings.

For school parents Hansen, Lichty and Pedersen, St. Vincent has helped their children thrive due to its extracurricular activities – including the state championship-winning football team – and academic programs within what they deemed a safe and nurturing school community.

“I'm so confident in just what the school does for my children socially, spiritually, academically,” Lichty said, adding that “we just need to fix this financial aspect.”

Pedersen said the school has been in contact with a number of other Catholic schools over the last several months that moved toward independence because, like St. Vincent High School, their tuition income does not fully cover expenses. These include St. Bernard in Eureka (where Daly was once also employed) and St. Bernard’s High School in Massachusetts.

“The model that has worked for us for 106 years is not working anymore,” Pedersen said. “And that's why we're adopting this independent governing board model to go forward and we're not reinventing the wheel.”

“When you see a GoFundMe ask, it's serious, it's needed, it’s urgent.”

You can reach Staff Writer Jennifer Sawhney at 707-521-5346 or jennifer.sawhney@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) @sawhney_media.