NORTH WILDWOOD – The decision to close Wildwood Catholic High School at the end of this school year has left many parents, students and teachers mourning the loss of a fixture in the Five-Mile Island community.
School was closed after the Jan. 5 announcement so the community could come to terms with the impending closure.
The effort to save the school has prompted over a thousand people to join a Facebook page. There is also a Web site www.savewildwoodcatholic.com that calls “Crusaders,” the school’s mascot, to arms.
“The death of the Wildwood Catholic community is sickening,” writes Jeanette Burns, whose son and daughter are sophomores at the school.
She wrote that parents should have had a hand in the decision-making process and that the school should have reached out the business community for advice and help.
“I am sure there were better alternatives, but we were never given the opportunity to explore any of them. Instead we were blindsided by a self-serving church,” she wrote.
The site’s mission statement strives to “ensure that a quality Catholic school education is available within Cape May County to all families of students from kindergarten through 12th grade, it is imperative that the doors of Wildwood Catholic High School remains open as they have for the past 62 years.”
The statement reads that the parents and parishioners are united in the fight for the right to continue to give children the quality of education that was afforded to county residents in years past.
“We endeavor to save this school and its traditions for our children and grandchildren be-cause it is the right thing to do,” the site states.
The site offers asks the followings:
• Place weekly offerings to the church in “escrow” and stay any other contributions until such time as the Camden Diocese agrees to keep Wildwood Catholic High School open.
• The Eighth and Central avenue vacant lot, owned by St. Ann Church, assessed at $8,977,000, should be listed for sale.
• The Diocese of Camden should provide full disclosure of its financial assessment of underwriting of urban education, its financial assessment to settle all sexual abuse lawsuits in and outside of the county and provide a complete and detailed inventory of all of its real estate holdings and their market value owned in the county.
The action plan offered includes:
• A letter to Bishop Galante requesting an immediate stay of his order to close the school.
• Selection of pro-bono attorney to ensure the Diocese responds to our resolution requests.
• Build our coalition far and wide. Contact all alumni, all parishioners, all concerned community members to join our efforts to save the high school.
• Fund raising plan to satisfy debts of the school if the Diocese provides written agreement to keep Wildwood Catholic for time to be determined.
• Organize committee of business leaders to create future plan for Catholic education in the county.
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