By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff

THE Archdiocese of Agana may reconsider its decision to shut down Mount Carmel School on three conditions: if the enrollment rate goes up; if it finds a new administrator; and if the school builds a reliable funding source such as an endowment foundation.
“All these three conditions must be fulfilled by April 15, or 61 days from now, otherwise, I have no other choice but to proceed with the closure process,” Archbishop Anthony Apuron said in an interview with Variety.
Last month, the Archdiocese announced its decision to close the 50-year-old Catholic institution after this school year, saying that the school’s declining enrolment and depleting resources “can no longer support the continued operation and administration of the school.”
“Right now, we have 90 students and 11 of these students are paying only half of the tuition. That is equivalent to only 84 paying students,” Apuron said.
He said Mount Carmel enrolment started to decline when the military downsized several years ago. “Many of the parents lost their jobs on base and could not afford to send their children to a Catholic school any more,” Apuron said.
Despite the new military buildup, however, Mount Carmel has not been able to recoup its enrollment rate, even losing many of its students to the Department of Defense School.
“If you’re depending on tuition alone, you cannot run a school with 90 students. We have to pay our teachers’ salaries, the power and water, among other things,” Apuron said.
He said the Agat school would stay open if it could enroll at least 150 full-paying students in the coming school year and he sees other “signs indicating the possibility that it can go forward.”
Another factor that prompted the decision to close Mount Carmel was the withdrawal of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, which had been the school’s administrator for the past 50 years. The Archdiocese said its search for a replacement administrator for the past year has not been successful.
“If we find a new administrator with proper experience in running a Catholic school, and if the alumni association is able to raise a substantial amount of fund to establish a foundation, then I may decide not to close the school,” said Apuron, who met with stakeholders of the school on Monday.
Mount Carmel is the only Catholic School in the south, and village mayors appeal to the archbishop to keep it open.