By Anita Kumar
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 22, 2008

RICHMOND, April 21 -- After raising nearly $1 million in three weeks, officials at St. Joseph School in Petersburg were told Monday that their small Catholic school will be able to stay open.

The Catholic Diocese of Richmond had threatened to close the strapped school at the end of the academic year unless parents, teachers and other Petersburg residents could raise $1 million by Monday.

After a Washington Post article about the school's plight was published Sunday, donations from the Washington area started to pour in, helping St. Joseph reach the goal, officials said.

"It's a great day for Petersburg,'' said Ken Pritchett, a member of the Petersburg City Council who grew up near the school.

St. Joseph, considered one of the only alternatives to Petersburg's failing public schools, has been an integral part of the city for more than a century. But across the nation, Catholic schools suffering from the economic downturn and declining enrollment have been closing at increasingly high rates.

Students hearing the news during an assembly Monday afternoon erupted in cheers and sang the school song.

"We kind of expected a miracle,'' said Ella Dickinson, whose son attends St. Joseph.

School supporters raised money with cookie sales, a vacation raffle and pleas to friends, alumni and strangers. They raised more than $900,000 in cash and in-kind donations, and checks were still coming in Monday. Late Monday, an anonymous donor pledged to contribute the rest.

"God is good," said Annette Z. Parsons, chief school administrator of the diocese.

Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell, who attended Catholic school in Northern Virginia, visited St. Joseph last week, contributing $1,000 and sending an e-mail to 10,000 supporters asking for donations.

"For a 133-year-old school with 149 students, in a city of only slightly more than 30,000 residents, this seemed an insurmountable obstacle,'' McDonnell wrote in a follow-up letter to supporters Monday. "But, as we learn time and again, nothing is impossible when Virginians come together to help their fellow citizens."

The money will be used to reduce debt and renovate the building, which needs a new roof, windows and paint.

St. Joseph, founded in 1876, is in the downtown area. It was the first Catholic school to be certified by the Virginia Board of Education and the only one in a city where most public schools lack accreditation. The school has 149 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. More than half are minorities, and only 20 percent are Catholic.