Aid for low-income families

staff position, development director, to oversee fundraising for Dayton’s urban schools. The director, to be hired by August and paid with donated money, will help establish and perpetuate a fund to give low-income city kids access to a Catholic education.

“We believe strongly that a Catholic education be available to everyone who wants it, regardless of their socioeconomic status or their religion,” schools Superintendent Jim Rigg said.

The new fund is envisioned as a sustained replacement for the $11.4 million Seeds of Growth fund, which was established through donations in 1997 and is now drying up. Seeds of Growth, intended to last 15 to 20 years, provides grants to local urban schools. Rigg said that without a new fund, “I would worry about the long-term economic viability of the schools. The economic challenges are pronounced.”

The Dayton fund is modeled after one in Cincinnati. Ultimately, officials hope to offer tuition help to needy families across the 19-county archdiocese, which includes the Miami Valley.

Catholic schools nationwide are experiencing wrenching change. In the Cincinnati archdiocese, enrollment has fallen to 43,263 this year from 56,515 in 2001-2002. Still, it’s the country’s seventh-largest Catholic school system, even though it’s the 38th largest U.S. diocese.

Rigg said the archdiocese, which has 113 schools, has closed or consolidated 22 schools in the last 12 years, eight of them in greater Dayton. Officials said future closings are possible as part of a strategic plan for Catholic schools set for release in the fall, but large numbers of closings aren’t expected.

Archdiocese spokesman Dan Andriacco, a member of the planning committee, said Catholic schools, like their secular counterparts, are faced with stagnant or dwindling populations in urban neighborhoods. “We have all the problems, all the challenges, that public schools have, plus rising tuition, which puts a burden on our Catholic families,” he said.

The fund will be used in part to make up the difference between what school vouchers pay and the actual cost of tuition, Rigg said.

The new development director will work with Rigg to empanel a board of trustees for the fund, set financial targets and launch an initial fundraising campaign.

Officials hope the fund will begin making grants by the end of 2013-2014. Annual campaigns are to follow.

Rigg said beneficiary schools have not been determined. But if the fund uses the existing benchmark of schools where at least half the students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches, Rigg said, they would be Mary Queen of Peace, Our Lady of the Rosary, St. Anthony, Immaculate Conception and Mother Maria Anna Brunner School.

Disbursements would be made based on the quality of a school’s academic and religious education, he said.

“I’m optimistic we’ll be able to find people who are supportive of our mission,” Rigg said.