Shocked by news that their longtime academic home would soon be no more, parents and alumni of the 40-year-old Mountain Christian School launched a campaign in hopes of keeping the Joppa school's doors open.
Officials from Mountain Christian Church, however, have indicated they do not want to re-open discussion and still plan to shut the school for good at the end of this academic year.
"It's just really heartbreaking for all of this to happen, and without any communication to the parents and staff, and no options to resolve the issue," Sherri Mazza said Sunday.
The Joppatowne resident had started a petition that had 356 signatures as of Monday, as well as a "Keep MCS Open" Facebook group with 1,075 members, urging the church to reconsider its decision.
Church leaders announced about two weeks ago the school, which has roughly 212 students, would be closed, citing falling enrollment since 2007.
As of last week, they stood by that decision.
"We want to assure you we explored every navigable option for maintaining our school," Greg Tutino, a representative for the elders of Mountain Christian Church, wrote in a letter that Mazza said was sent to her Saturday.
"Losing 1/3 of our enrollment steadily over a continuous decline across 7 years despite our best efforts to slow that hemorrhage was a key factor in making the school unsustainable, despite our affection and commitment to it. The decision to discontinue MCS was arrived at after a lengthy and arduous process and after agonizing deliberation," according to the letter Mazza showed from Tutino.
On Sunday, her husband, Steve Mazza, said the petition effort would be closed and the Facebook group will probably shift to providing support to those who need it.
Several parents say they remain skeptical of church leaders' motives, noting families and alumni have offered to raise funds and maintain the school.
Bel Air's Lisa Pattisall, who has had three children attend Mountain Christian School, said one of her children went to Bel Air's private John Carroll School for high school, and "they do huge fundraising."
"I have gone to church there [at Mountain Christian]; I have never heard the school mentioned in the church," Pattisall said, noting her daughter has won many writing awards and would have loved to speak about her experience at the school.
"I have some really, really bad feelings about the way they have done this...It almost seems like nobody was given the opportunity to do anything, which is so discouraging," Pattisall said about the decision to close. "I don't think they have ever wanted the school."
Sherri Mazza said she hoped the church would have seen the "outpouring of love and support for the school" and reconsider the decision.
"I have to question how they came to this resolution since they never reached out to Alumni or congregation for donations, worked with PTF [Parent Teacher Fellowship] to hold fundraisers or develop marketing plan to increase enrollment," Mazza said in an e-mail. "It is very sad that a church that large could let a ministry that popular fail."
She pointed out messages sent by alumni as far away as North Dakota who have been shocked by the news.
Karen Drager, whose family has been with the school for 13 years, also said several people expressed willingness to make substantial donations.
"I guess it's very disappointing when they are telling us it's a financial issue, with this being the largest church in Harford County, with having many satellite places," she said. "It's quite shocking that they don't want to have a dialogue."
Pastor Ben Cachiaras directed all request for comment to Tutino of the church elders. Tutino emailed a statement Tuesday that he asked to be used in full:
"We appreciate the inquiries we have received about the decision to close Mountain Christian School and can understand the concerns expressed by many about this decision," Tutino wrote. "The decision to close our school was extremely difficult to make because of our love for it and because of the impact this would have on families and staff however, we remain confident that it is the right and best decision."
"The school leadership conducted extensive reviews and analyses before making the very difficult decision to close our school. The fundamental issue has not been the need for greater allocation of funds, but our inability to stem a steady decline in enrollment, which has occurred over the last seven years," he continued."Our decision cameafter years of work involving multiple initiatives designed to strengthen our school and improve our position.In addition, as we further studied this issue all indicators consistently pointed to further enrollment declines in the coming years.It became evident that a declining student population would not allow us to continue to faithfully serve families by providing the quality education that has been the hallmark of Mountain Christian School."
The statement concludes: "Mountain is making every effort to ease the transition of school families to other schools in the immediate area and is conducting an open house onThursday, Feb. 5, at 6:30 p.m., where numerous local faith-based schools will be present. We continue to invite everyone concerned to join us in prayer for every family affected by this decision."