Reprieve for Sacred Heart H.S. in Vineland

VINELAND, N.J. - The nearly 200 students gathered in the Sacred Heart High School gym got unusual permission from their usually strict assistant principal Friday: They could use their cellphones.

Keith Jones urged them to call their families and tell them what they had just heard from other officials - that the school would not be shut down after all.

"I want you to all call your parents and your friends," said Jones, who is also the school's athletic director. "And tell all your younger brothers and sisters to be ready to come to Sacred Heart."

The students had been summoned to the gym an hour before school was to let out at noon for the long Presidents' Day weekend. Most of them wore T-shirts emblazoned with the words "Defend the Den. Keep Us Roaring."

The slogan, referring to the school's nickname, the Lions, was printed four weeks ago after the Diocese of Camden declared that Sacred Heart would close at the end of the school year.

"Four weeks ago, I called you here to make one of the most difficult announcements I have ever had to make: that with the end of the current academic year, Sacred Heart would close," Msgr. John Burton began. "Things have changed. I am happy to tell you that on Wednesday of this week, Bishop [Joseph] Galante advised me that he was able to reverse his decision.

"Sacred Heart High School will continue to operate next year, the years after, and, please God, for many years to come," said Burton, who is the pastor of the school's sponsoring parish, Good Shepherd, and is himself a 1964 Sacred Heart alumnus.

Students leaped from their benches and gave him a standing ovation.

"This is just great. This school needs to continue to produce great kids, as it has for 85 years," said Stephen Dupnock, a senior from Millville. "Nothing could be better news."

When Burton announced the proposed closing of Sacred Heart, alumni, parents, and students formed committees to see what they could do to keep their school open.

They did not panic, said one of the parent-alumni committee members, public relations executive Francis Reilly, a 1961 Sacred Heart grad.

"We knew there would be money to raise, and I think we will be able to do it," Reilly said.

Galante and the diocese's administration said they needed to see $300,000 by May 1 and an additional $300,000 by the end of the year to erase the school's debt and put it on solid footing, at least for the coming year.

Mark Ronchetti, a Vineland accountant, 1977 Sacred Heart graduate, and executive on the Save Sacred Heart Committee, said Galante approved a reorganization of some administrative functions and enhanced fund-raising and student recruitment so Sacred Heart could continue to function.

The school's enrollment is about 190, Ronchetti said, and the committee hopes to stabilize that number for next year, then add about 20 students a year until the school gets to capacity, approximately 350, a decade or so down the road.

Ronchetti's older son, Mark Jr., graduated from Sacred Heart in 2010 and his younger son, Jeffrey, is a senior there. His parents, Ed and Mary Jane, also graduated from the school.

"We serve kids mostly from Cumberland County, but there are lots of people looking for Catholic education in Salem County, where there is no Catholic high school, and in southern Gloucester County, too," he said.

After Burton spoke, Reilly stood up and read a handwritten letter from his mother, Donata Cirelli Reilly, 98, one of the last two surviving members of Sacred Heart's 1931 graduating class - its first.

"It was a sad thing for me when I learned that Sacred Heart High School was not to be after this year," read her note. "Thinking of this brought back many memories of the school's beginning - one grade each year for four years, then it was a high school. I have now learned that the school will continue to be. It's a blessing to hear the good news."

Reilly told the students that his mother wanted them to know that the road ahead wouldn't be as tough as the road behind.

He noted that she and the other original students had to do class work in the pews of the adjacent church initially, before the school building was ready.

"Sometimes they had to draw a curtain because they had to use the rest of the church for a funeral," Reilly said with a laugh. "You all have it easier than that."

Fund-raising begins with a pair of alumni basketball games - one men's and one women's - Monday evening, and Reilly indicated that many members of the community, not just alumni, had pledged to the fund.