Novena Recited To Guide Decision

By JIM KEVLIN


The Sacred Heart Home Schoolers, 50 pupils in all, may come to the rescue of St. Mary’s School, which faces the possibility of closing.
A Novena – a nine-day cycle of prayer – was begun Monday, Jan. 31, seeking guidance on what to do, according to Michael and Jean Naples, who are active in the Oneonta-area Home Schoolers group.
“It’s got to be based on prayer,” Mike Naples said of any decision on whether the Home Schoolers should collaborate more fully with the parochial school on Route 7 east.
The Napleses and other Home Schoolers members attended a briefing on the possible closing Wednesday evening, Jan. 26, at St. Mary’s, and came away impressed.
“These are good people here, committed to the school,” Jean Naples’ said of the impression she and Mike received. 
The following Friday, Owen Kennedy, a St. Mary’s alumnus and a member of the Home Schoolers, stopped by the school and alerted Principal Patty Bliss to the Novena.
After nine days, the organization will make a decision, he told Bliss, who said later, “I believe there’s no such thing as a coincidence.”
The principal said members of the school community will also participate in the Novena, a practice that echoes nine days of prayer conducted by the Apostles after the crucifixion, according to the New Testament.
In recent years, St. Mary’s enrollment has shrunk to just 50 students and, as a result, they have been consolidated into three classes – Grades 1-2, 3-4 and 5-6.
The Rev. Joseph Benintende, pastor of St. Mary’s Church and president of the school board, said the school board voted in December to recommend to the Diocese of Albany to close the school.
The diocesan school board couldn’t reach consensus on forwarding the recommendation to the Bishop Howard Hubbard, so the decision was returned to the local school board, which briefed parents at a meeting Monday, Jan. 24.
The parents met two days later with Bliss, and vowed to raise sufficient funds and find enough students to keep St. Mary’s open.
The diocese recommends a parochial school needs to have a minimum of 12 students per grade to be successful, and Bliss said the census must be raised to 70 for St. Mary’s future to be assured.
Tuition runs from $1,700 to $4,000 but, according to Bliss, money is not an object, as the school has a healthy endowment and can subsidize the tuition as necessary.
However, Father Benintende said there is no firm number, either on enrollment or fundraising.
“I don’t know where it’s going to go,” he said.
If St. Mary’s – it was founded in 1923 – were to close, there would be no parochial school between Albany and Binghamton.  It is the only such institution in Otsego and Delaware counties.