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North Catholic closer to decision on relocation
archived from: 2007-03-26
by: Name Here

North Catholic High School supporters and the Diocese of Pittsburgh should know by the end of June if fund-raising efforts and financial feasibility studies show the school will be able to achieve the estimated $20 million to $25 million needed to build a new school in the Cranberry-Mars area.

“All the data we have been collecting and analyzing over the past three years indicate a need to relocate the school,” said Dr. Robert Paserba, superintendent of schools for the diocese. “We formed a blue-ribbon committee in the fall of 2003 to develop a long-range strategic plan for North Catholic High School, located on Troy Hill Road on Pittsburgh’s North Side.

“The committee included a broad representation of both diocesan and North Catholic school and board members, as well as alumni, pastors and other community leaders,” he said.

Their study, completed in March 2004, indicated a declining student population in the city and a corresponding rise in student populations north of Pittsburgh, as evidenced by the large public high schools that have been built there: Seneca Valley, Pine-Richland, Mars and North Allegheny.

Since 2004, the demographics have shifted even more strongly to favor relocating the school to northern Allegheny/Butler County. As Frank Orga — who was named president of the school under a model recommended by the committee — noted, “Our relocation plan is imperative to continue to provide the North Side, its surrounding communities, and northern Allegheny and Butler counties a top-quality Catholic high school.”

“More than 30 percent of the current student body comes from the Seneca Valley School District in Butler,” Paserba said.

“With current enrollment at North Catholic down to 315 students compared to around 1,200 in the 1980s, the cost per pupil has increased significantly.

The only way to lower those costs is to increase enrollment,” he said.

“It would make sense to have the school where it is more accessible to a larger student base. Certainly a Cranberry-Mars area school would make sense for the 22 Catholic elementary schools that would serve as feeder schools.

Many of these schools have significant enrollment growth. And as for transportation, North Catholic operates a few of its own buses — and also relies on public school districts to transport its students. While they presently bus students in from the northern areas to Troy Hill, those same buses would simply change their routes and could bus students from the city to the new location. So no students would be left without a means of getting to school.” Bishop Paul Bradley, diocesan administrator, wrote in a December 2006 letter that “the Diocese of Pittsburgh supports the school’s plan to continue its legacy and to relocate to the northern Pittsburgh-area suburbs, providing that adequate financial support can be raised.”

“The educational program at North Catholic continues to be of the highest quality. Our greatest challenge is the financing,” said Father Kris Stubna, secretary for education. “The vast majority of the $20-$25 million will have to be raised, and that is why the school and diocese have been engaged in a financial feasibility study over the past four or five months. With both the initiation of a capital campaign in March, and engaging in some preliminary architectural designs and cost analysis, we should have some decisions by the end of June 2007.”

Father Stubna added that “while maintaining our commitment to serve our families on the North Side and our traditional feeder schools, we now have the opportunity to serve increased numbers of students by relocating North Catholic to a site in the Cranberry-Mars area. With the wonderful gift of land for a new school complex, and a growing number of donors in support of this project, we believe this represents our best opportunity to preserve North Catholic High School and its Marianist tradition of a Catholic, high-quality academic education for our next generation of families.”

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