ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST PARISH, La. — The words on the school sign outside Ascension of Our Lord School in LaPlace aren’t just about the students. The message “Fighting for our Future” is also about the school.
“When the decision came out to close, it just threw me for a loop because I’m asking why,” said parent Necohle Stanton.
A letter from the Archdiocese of New Orleans last month is when Stanton and other parents found out the pre-k through seventh-grade catholic school would not reopen next year.
“Came as a big surprise because closing the school was never on the table,” said Stanton.
Stanton’s son and grandson are students at Ascension. Her daughter is a teacher. She says there were meetings over the Summer about possibly merging struggling catholic schools in the area, but that’s it.
The letter from the Archdiocese points mostly to financial reasons for closing Ascension.
“It’s a faith filled environment but it’s also a nurturing environment which is very important to me as a working parent,” said PTO President Nia Sanders.
Sanders has two kids at Ascension. She says closing a school that’s served this community for 43 years would be detrimental to the 162 students who go here and the community.
“Don’t just close us and throw us out on the street and be like, ‘Y’all figure it out,’” said Sanders.
Instead of just accepting fate, parents and staff are turning to faith.
“We have been fundraising every week. Every week we have a fundraiser,” said Stanton.
With permission from the Archdiocese, they’ve been raising money to save the school.
“They want us to raise $500,000 by February 29th,” said Stanton.
That would be a reserve fund for insurance and maintenance for the next two school years. About half is expected to come from FEMA reimbursements.
The looming closure of Ascension comes as the Archdiocese deals with financial struggles, mostly tied to lawsuits against the church.
“So, they can’t really backup the school like they used to in the past and that is where the problem lies,” said Sanders.
If the money isn’t raised, parents worry about what happens next.
“Every school has their own identity,” said Sanders. “Everyone in this school is family.”
Since Ascension is made up mostly of black and brown students, many relying on scholarships for tuition, parents worry about acceptance at other, predominately white catholic schools.
“We have heard in the community the other schools don’t want to take the scholarships or they don’t want to take so many of the scholarship kids,” said Sanders. “There’s this stigma attached to the scholarship program that these are the bad kids, these are the kids that the other schools don’t want. That’s not the case. There are scholarship kids that are honor roll students their whole school year.”
Stanton’s son is a scholarship kid. Like other parents she’s scrambling to figure out what to do, while helping to raise enough money that she won’t have to.
“The big hurdle would be the support from people, not just people from the school, but from the Archdiocese and from the community,” said Stanton.
The next fundraiser for the school is Saturday, December 2nd on campus. A Christmas pop-up shop will be from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. Breakfast with Santa will be from 9 a.m. until 11 a.m.
Ascension of Our Lord School is located at 1809 Greenwood Drive in LaPlace.
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