St. Camillus will not reopen for new school year

 It is official that St. Camillus Academy will not be reopening for the 2013-14 school year and it is likely the end for the 105-year-old Catholic school.

Principal Terry Newquist said the decision was made last Friday during a meeting of the board of directors of St. Camillus Academy of Corbin, Inc. and parents were notified on Monday.

The decision leaves six full-time teachers, two part-time teachers and four other staff members out of work.

Newquist said even with the fundraising efforts by the board and cost-cutting measures, the school was facing a budget deficit of $125,000 to $145,000 for the upcoming year.

“We have been going back and forth,” Newquist said. “One day, everything would be looking up and the next day we would hit another stumbling block.”

Newquist said the biggest issue facing the board was time and the uncertainty that created, as the school year grew closer.

When it was announced in June that the corporation had reached an agreement with the Sisters of the Order of Divine Providence, who own the property, to operate the school, Scott Webster, Secretary of the corporation, said there were approximately 50 students registered for the upcoming school year.

Newquist said the most recent count was down to 42 and even some of those were wavering.

“The parents didn’t want to start the school year here and then have to move their children if the school closed in the middle of the year,” Newquist explained.

If we had more time, we might have been able to make it work,” she said. “We just couldn’t justify keeping the school going.”

St. Camillus opened in 1908 when Rev. Ambrose Reger, O.S.B. established a parish school for Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Corbin.

By 1913, the church was unable to support the school and Father Reger asked the Sisters of Divine Providence to take over its operation. On Sept. 8, 1913, the sisters began an academy in Corbin, known as St. Camillus Academy.

At its high point in the early 1970s, the schools enrollment grew to approximately 300 students in grades one through 12.

Kindergarten was added in 1985 and the Montessori class began in 1996. The high school closed in 1996 due to decreasing enrollment and increasing expenses.

A similar situation forced school officials to eliminate seventh and eighth grades at the beginning of the 2012-13 school year.

In January, officials at the Diocese of Lexington notified school officials that because of finances, the diocese could no longer support the school.

Supporters of the school began searching for another order of nuns to come in and operate the school. When that failed, parents and supporters began taking steps in an attempt to run the school themselves.

Newquist said it would be up to the Sisters to determine what happens to the property and buildings.