St. Albert: Tightening the financial belt
Posted: 07/25/2010 - by Owen Burgin
St. Albert: Tightening the financial belt
By Dennis Friend, Staff Writer, dennis.friend@nonpareilonline.com
Published: Sunday, July 25, 2010 12:19 AM CDT
In August 2009, several hundred people showed up at St. Albert Catholic School to see the results of an $8.5 million renovation and remodeling. The open house at 400 Gleason Ave. revealed a new 6,000-square-foot childcare center and a 30,000-square-foot school addition offering 10 new classrooms, a gymnasium and multipurpose room.
“No one knew what was coming when the campaign started,” St. Albert school president James Rouse said.
The day of the open house, Bishop Richard Pates of the Des Moines Archdiocese toured the primary school addition and the Sheryl K. Johnson Early Childhood Development Center and pronounced it “a Cadillac operation” offering a cradle-to-college Catholic education on one campus.
Jon Narmi, a member of the fundraising campaign committee, attended the open house celebration. Some people might have considered him a wet blanket at the time when he warned that a combination of rising construction costs, the credit crisis and the recession meant getting caught in the “perfect economic storm.”
“We were in the bubble, and the bubble popped,” Narmi said.
The building project began in May 2008 after five years of planning and fundraising by former school president Brian Osborne. Rouse officially took the St. Albert helm on July 1, 2008, just in time for the worst recession in decades.
“We should not expect the St. Albert Catholic Schools to be immune from the pervasive economic conditions impacting all the other private and public schools, businesses and foundations surrounding us,” Rouse said.
The project was expected to cost about $7 million, but final costs were closer to $8.5 million. The bill was to be paid through pledges and gifts raised in a capital campaign. Some people are having problems meeting their pledge amounts, Rouse said. He characterizes the state of the current economy as a depression, not a recession.
By Dennis Friend, Staff Writer, dennis.friend@nonpareilonline.com
Published: Sunday, July 25, 2010 12:19 AM CDT
In August 2009, several hundred people showed up at St. Albert Catholic School to see the results of an $8.5 million renovation and remodeling. The open house at 400 Gleason Ave. revealed a new 6,000-square-foot childcare center and a 30,000-square-foot school addition offering 10 new classrooms, a gymnasium and multipurpose room.
“No one knew what was coming when the campaign started,” St. Albert school president James Rouse said.
The day of the open house, Bishop Richard Pates of the Des Moines Archdiocese toured the primary school addition and the Sheryl K. Johnson Early Childhood Development Center and pronounced it “a Cadillac operation” offering a cradle-to-college Catholic education on one campus.
Jon Narmi, a member of the fundraising campaign committee, attended the open house celebration. Some people might have considered him a wet blanket at the time when he warned that a combination of rising construction costs, the credit crisis and the recession meant getting caught in the “perfect economic storm.”
“We were in the bubble, and the bubble popped,” Narmi said.
The building project began in May 2008 after five years of planning and fundraising by former school president Brian Osborne. Rouse officially took the St. Albert helm on July 1, 2008, just in time for the worst recession in decades.
“We should not expect the St. Albert Catholic Schools to be immune from the pervasive economic conditions impacting all the other private and public schools, businesses and foundations surrounding us,” Rouse said.
The project was expected to cost about $7 million, but final costs were closer to $8.5 million. The bill was to be paid through pledges and gifts raised in a capital campaign. Some people are having problems meeting their pledge amounts, Rouse said. He characterizes the state of the current economy as a depression, not a recession.
-ARCHIVES-
