By Howard Koplowitz
St. Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr School at 90-01 101st Ave. heard that its business plan was given the green light last Thursday by the diocese and has until May 31 to turn the document into action, said Sister Francis Marie Wystepek, principal of the school.”We are grateful to the vicar and the superintendent for approving our plan,” she said.Included in the business plan devised by a planning committee composed of 10 parents are efforts to increase enrollment by holding fund-raisers and using marketing techniques such as inserting fliers into newspapers. The school will also be holding an open house anytime during the school day and on Sundays from 12 to 3 p.m., Wystepek said. Another feature of the plan includes incentives for parents who are able to bring in new students to the school.”I'm thrilled that the school is open and we just need more people to realize how wonderful a school it is. The education you get here at St. Stanislaus is superior,” said Simonetta Bertolini, a parent of a fourth-grader at the school. She added that the school never advertises and relies heavily on word-of-mouth.Wystepek, who would be starting her 20th year with the school in September, said St. Stanislaus was targeted for closure due to low enrollment and a budget that was about $35,000 short because of capital increases like the new fire alarm system and other related work. She said the first large decrease in enrollment that the school suffered began after Sept. 11, 2001. Over four years, the school saw a drop of 40 students. Lee Grieca, parent planning committee member and the mother of two alumni as well as a current seventh-grader, credits St. Stanislaus with laying the foundation for the success of her two oldest children. Her son is an honor student as a high school freshman and her daughter is a graduate student at Hofstra University.”If they went to a different school, they wouldn't have achieved what they did,” Grieca said of her children.She said the school has received donations from some of the approximately 600 alumni who the school has on a list. Woodside's vaunted Blessed Virgin Mary Help of Christians School was not as fortunate. The diocese rejected its business plan and the schools, which is 147 years ago, is scheduled to be shuttered at the end of this academic year.Several other Catholic schools in the borough are still set to close before September due to “necessary” tuition increases and changing demographics, according to Brooklyn Diocese spokesman Frank DeRosa. DeRosa said he was not familiar with the specifics of St. Stanislaus' plan.Reach reporter Howard Koplowitz by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 173.
