Catholic schools turn to fundraising to meet financial needs

As schools around the borderland battle to keep their students, private Catholic school are turning more to fundraising, including crowdfunding, to provide services.

Our Lady of the Valley, which ABC-7 reported would be closing at the end of the school year, has started a GoFundMe to make up their financial deficit. Diocese officials say financial problems have deep roots.

“The demographics just tell us that we don’t have enough school children to support the schools,” said El Paso Catholic Schools interim superintendent, Steve Sanchez.

Since private Catholic schools don’t receive federal funding, they rely on tuition payments and donations to stay open. School administrators said it takes constant fundraising efforts to keep schools in good shape, even for financially stable ones like St. Patrick’s Elementary.

“We do have to get creative in fundraising. Some schools have different events,” said Iliana Esparza, the principal for St. Patrick’s Elementary, which is planning a bazaar.

But even St Patrick’s is seeing low enrollment numbers, and even with some students in class, it’s not enough to keep the hardest hit, Our Lady of the Valley, open. The problem: simply not enough young families are living close enough.

“Our Lady of the Valley is in a unique situation. Regrettably it’s in an area that no longer can support a Catholic school through enrollment and so on. It’s in an area that serves youngsters from the lower economic spectrum and because of that have to rely a lot on financial assistance. The low enrollment in that particular school has led to the problem of finances this year,” Sanchez said.