Graduation is bittersweet this year at St. Isidore School in Farmersville. After serving St. Mary Parish for 88 years, the school will close after the last day of the academic year on May 27. At right, Isabella Murphy gets a hug from her grandmother Diane Murphy as she and her kindergarten classmates at St. Isidore enter St. Mary Church May 19 for their kindergarten graduation ceremony during Mass. FARMERSVILLE - St. Isidore School in Farmersville will close at the end of this school year. Parents and supporters of the 88-year-old St. Mary Parish school received a letter dated May 14 notifying them of the decision to close the K-8 grade school and preschool. The last day of class at St. Isidore will be May 27.
A shortfall this fiscal year, a projected shortfall of $25,000 for the next fiscal year, plus a significant decline in enrollment at both the school and preschool were some of the reasons Father Gerald L. Bunse, St. Mary parish administrator, cited in the announcement letter.
"It is an emotional issue," says Father Bunse. Operating in a deficit and facing declining enrollment, the school board had looked into the possibility of cutting staff, "but we kept coming back to the question: ‘Are we providing the children a quality educational experience?' Committees were established to help recruit, advertise and promote the school, but despite their wonderful efforts, it was not enough to overcome the realities of living in these difficult economic times.
"We have 49 students this year, but only 41 committed for next year. Perhaps we might have gotten a few more students, but 41-some kids in nine different grades are not enough."
The St. Isidore School Board, parish finance council and parish trustees met May 13, after consulting with Bishop George J. Lucas and Jean Johnson, diocesan superintendent of Catholic Schools, and arrived at the decision to close St. Isidore.
A banner on the sanctuary wall behind Father Gerald Bunse, St. Mary parochial administrator, lists the school’s two eighth-graders who graduated May 16 — St. Isidore’s last graduating class."St. Isidore School has had a great tradition of Catholic education since its founding in 1921," said Father Bunse. "In its 88 years of educating children, spiritually, academically and socially, the school has had a great impact on those whom it has touched. We owe a great debt to the Dominican sisters who had the vision and ability to accept the mission of establishing St. Isidore and providing sisters to teach and administer here for so many years."
When declining vocations forced the sisters to cut back the number of places they served, "a wonderfully dedicated and committed lay staff has come forward to provide the children with an education that has seen them move on to achieve in many areas," Father Bunse said. Dominicans have been gone from St. Isidore, but have not been forgotten, he said.
Two teachers at St. Isidore have been there for almost 30 years.
"There is sadness," said Father Bunse, who presided at the final St. Isidore graduation on May 16. Two students were in the class.
With no students in seventh grade this year, next year there would not have been a graduation. Many people living in the Farmersville community today don't have school age children, Father Bunse said.
The letter Father Bunse sent to parishioners just a few days before, announcing the school was closing, was very much in the thoughts of many at the graduation.
In closing the letter, he wrote, "We are told that ‘All good things come to an end.' It is time now to end on a positive note. The decision to close the school is coming at the appropriate time - a time when we still can look around us and find the goodness and success of our works; a time when it is still our decision on how to approach the inevitable.
Students sing during the Mass. "The closing of the school will be a painful experience and endings are sad, no matter what. But endings are easier to handle when they do not become a tragedy. My hope is that we will come to this ending with pride and with gratitude for the many years of God's grace bestowed upon all of those who have been touched by St. Isidore School. It will take some getting used to, but we will continue in new and varied ways to teach the faith to our children."
The school year still has several days to go for the rest of the St. Isidore students. There will still be a school Mass; and after Mass on May 27 there will be a school picnic in the park. A St. Isidore School Alumni Celebration, to be held sometime in July, is still in the early planning stages. It will include an open house at the school, for people to walk through and share memories.