Pastor accused of 'charade' in Atco school closing

A month after they lost a bid to save their school, parents from Assumption School in Atco have sent a letter to Camden's new bishop accusing their pastor of a "contrived and deceptive charade" and a "gross lack of financial accountability" involving more than $340,000.

As they push back against the school's closing in June, parents say the Rev. Thomas Barcellona of Christ the Redeemer Church always intended to close the school despite telling parents that he would keep it open if they met enrollment and financial targets.

In a letter delivered to Bishop Dennis J. Sullivan last week, lawyer Michael J. Ward, who is representing more than 100 people, said the school's closing was "premised upon wholly inaccurate information and a rather contrived and deceptive charade."

It also said both the pastor and John O'Donnell, president of the school board and chairman of the finance committee, have not accounted for the $340,000 raised by parents and supporters over the previous 29 months.

Although the money was to be used for the school, "no one in Christ the Redeemer parish office has been able or willing to answer a very simple question posed by many of the people I represent: Where has this restricted use school money gone?" the letter asked.

He said Barcellona ordered all school funds turned over to him and deposited into a general revenue account for Christ the Redeemer parish, which was intended to "create an illusion" that Assumption could not balance its books.

"This whole thing has a strange smell to it," Ward said in an interview. "We just want to find out what is going on, what really happened, and reverse this thing."

A diocesan spokesman declined to comment on the letter, but said Barcellona had ordered an audit of school and parish finances. Attempts to reach Barcellona were unsuccessful.

The community's distrust of the pastor is no secret. But it spiked in February, when Barcellona said the school was closing in June even though more than 150 students had registered for next year, as he had requested.

Parents said they were blindsided when he told them that 20 of the registered families were not fully paid up on this year's tuition and could not be counted on for next year.

"They were wrong about the enrollment," said parent Rochelle DeSorte.

The contentious relationship between the pastor and his flock goes back to his brief tenure as associate pastor years ago. Barcellona at that time "never had any significant involvement or participatory role in any Assumption School's sponsored educational, social, and spiritual activities," Ward stated in the letter.

"He does his Masses and doesn't come to school," DeSorte said. "He still avoids everybody."

Parents in the close-knit school, built in 1955, mainly by first-generation Italians on weekends so their children would have a Catholic education, say Barcellona rarely visits the students and seemed intent on closing the school from his first days as pastor.

"He has created a very volatile environment, where it is them against us, and it's very sad," said Diane Simpson, a member of Assumption's grandparents committee and an active fund-raiser.

In May, the pastor announced that Assumption was closing because of a projected enrollment decline. But he and the diocese agreed to save the school if enrollment and financial goals were met.

Through frenetic fund-raising, Assumption exceeded the first benchmark of $78,000 by Jan. 1. The next goal was a Feb. 1 deadline to enroll 150 students - and collect $100 deposits - for the next school year.

Through aggressive outreach, the school signed up 151 students by the deadline. But the next day, school board president O'Donnell inexplicably withdrew registrations for his three children.

In a 2010 Catholic Star Herald article about O'Donnell's work helping to merge three churches to form Christ the Redeemer, Barcellona called him a "great guy," and said he was "extremely pro-church and pro-Catholic school."

O'Donnell did not return a call for comment.

Supporters say Barcellona never said anything about tuition being up to date. The school has a tuition-assistance program, and families are not considered in arrears until the end of the school year.

"He didn't know we could raise that much money for our first benchmark, so he had to figure out a way to discredit our registrations," Simpson said.

The final benchmark was to raise another $78,000 by April 1. With families still calling about tours and a nearby charter school closing at the end of the year, parents believed enrollment would have far exceeded 150.

But parents have stopped fund-raising, canceling hoagie sales, a crab-and-spaghetti dinner, a bingo party and fashion show, all of which, they estimate, would have brought in from $80,000 to $90,000.

Supporters are also asking families to hand in empty collection envelopes at Sunday Mass, with the message, "When Barcellona is removed, then I'll give money."

In an act of defiance, the money from a school clothing drive, about $1,600, will be given directly to teachers for a seventh- and eighth-grade class trip to Washington, maybe the last one.

"The proceeds are going to the kids," DeSorte said, "not to him."