Mother Seton Academy To Close Due To Decline In Enrollment

HOWELL, NJ — Mother Seton Academy in Howell will close down permanently after the end of the current school year due to declining enrollment and financial challenges.

"Despite the important and worthwhile effort to keep a Catholic school education available in our area, and the hard work invested in this ideal by so many in our community, we have been impacted by factors that impeded our ability to reach our goals," reverends Peter James Alindogan and John P. Bambrick said in a joint statement.

The decline in enrollment has been the biggest challenge facing the school.

"Along with the coronavirus pandemic, (it) has compromised our ability to sustain operations without significant outside assistance," the statement said.

The school was founded in September 2019 with the merger of St. Veronica School in Howell and St. Aloysius School in Jackson and was established in the latter location.

"Enrollment at Mother Seton Academy has been a persistent concern and has now seriously declined," the reverends said.

The school started out with a class of over 300 students and now has fewer than 126 in grades 1 through 8.

"This is well below the level of academic and financial sustainability for any Catholic school, and has led to a deficit in the school budget of $140K as of September, 2021," they said. "Despite a subsidy from the Diocese of Trenton of more than $250K over the past two years and additional funding from the two parishes, the school will not be able to have a sound financial footing without much higher enrollment levels; something that is unrealistic given current demographic trends in the area."

The reverends said that the St. Aloysius Parish and St. Veronica Parish can't cover more of the school's expenses since they had a "catastrophic" loss of income due to the pandemic shutdown.

"It is clear that for all of these reasons, Mother Seton Academy cannot remain open beyond the current school year," the statement said. "This announcement is painful for us personally and to us all. We acknowledge the disappointment that this news brings to our dedicated faculty, staff, children and families of the Academy. The Diocese will work to assist our faculty and staff in planning for their next steps."

More information is available at the school's FAQ page about the shutdown.

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