All Hallows Catholic Excessive College, a 116-year-old establishment situated on East 164th Avenue and Grand Concourse, faces a crucial fundraising effort to protect its legacy and proceed serving the Bronx neighborhood.
Photograph courtesy All Hallows
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All Hallows, a Catholic highschool of 320 college students at East 164th Avenue and Grand Concourse, is on the monetary brink, citing a decline in charitable giving, native inhabitants loss and elevated prices of sustaining the 95-year-old constructing.
President Ron Schutté mentioned in a fundraising flyer that the college, which has operated for 116 years, is now dealing with a “critical period.” The varsity goals to lift $2.5 million by Jan. 15 and has already raised roughly $750,000.
The varsity plans to divide the funds between 5 pillars, which embody tuition help and scholarships, coeducation, college and scholar help, Catholic identification and common operations.
“I won’t mince words; the future of our beloved school hangs in no small part on your generosity,” Schutté mentioned.
All Hallows already made a serious change this 12 months in an effort to recruit extra college students, going co-ed with plans of absorbing former college students from St. Barnabas, a now-shuttered women’ highschool in Yonkers. All Hallows now has 20 feminine college students and is anticipating so as to add extra, and projected freshman enrollment numbers look sturdy, in accordance with info from the college.
However on the identical time, All Hallows has misplaced 70 college students who moved out of New York amid a decline in Bronx inhabitants. The borough has seen a 6.3% inhabitants loss within the post-pandemic years, the best charge among the many 5 boroughs, in accordance with a December 2023 report by State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.
The varsity additionally pointed to a drop in world charitable giving or “donor fatigue.” Brian McGinley, the college’s vice chairman for development, informed the Bronx Instances that All Hallows has truly had extra donors, though the overall donated is much less.
Catholic faculties closing
All Hallows is just not the one struggling Catholic faculty, as evidenced by a wave of latest wave of closures in New York Metropolis and the encompassing suburbs. Prior to now 12 months alone, St. Simon Inventory College in Fordham Heights closed on the finish of final faculty 12 months, as did St. Matthias Catholic Academy in Ridgewood, Queens; St. Catherine of Genoa-St. Thérèse of Lisieux in East Flatbush, Brooklyn; Salve Regina Catholic Academy in East New York, Brooklyn; and Transfiguration College in Tarrytown, Westchester County.
Tuition at All Hallows is $7,200 per 12 months, plus an annual complete price of $1,000 ($1,200 for seniors) to cowl a Chromebook, gymnasium uniform, faculty sweater, yearbook and extra. These prices on par or not less than considerably decrease than at different outstanding Bronx Catholic excessive faculties, resembling Cardinal Hayes (base tuition $7,700, not together with charges) and Cardinal Spellman ($10,900).
Many college students pay lower than full tuition, in accordance with a truth sheet supplied McGinley, which additionally mentioned the college is personal, not Archdiocesan, and is subsequently not financially supported by the Archdiocese of New York.
The varsity mentioned that whereas a “perfect storm” of “multiple developments beyond [its] control” has created an pressing monetary want, its constructive outcomes are well-proven. All of its 2024 seniors have been accepted into four-year faculties and have been collectively awarded $32 million in scholarships, in accordance with the marketing campaign brochure.
“We believe that the [fundraising] goal, while substantial, is attainable when one considers the positive role All Hallows has played in so many lives.”
