Last week, my homeschool co-op had its final band and choir concerts in the parish activity center at the church we have rented space from for four years. The powers that be at the parish decided that it would be more lucrative to rent to a private school (although it might be a charter school – no one I spoke to in leadership is really clear about who the new tenant will be). So, after the last note rang out and the accolades and thanks were given to students and directors, all the band equipment was loaded into a moving truck and driven out of the county to the new Protestant church that has agreed to host the co-op next year.
This is not the first time my co-op has experienced something like this. Right after COVID, the small Catholic church school we were renting told us to move. They apparently didn’t like having children using the building. In fact, although they built a school, it was never actually used as such. There was constant tension with the maintenance man, who was always complaining about something, and in the end, the pastor decided it was better to live without income from our co-op than to deal with this guy’s gripes every week.
It’s not just homeschoolers. Other groups have had issues too.
Things have changed a great deal for homeschool groups and others trying to use facilities owned by the Catholic church, at least in my area. Before the pandemic, we had a small group that met in a basement on Fridays while the older boys played ball in the small gym. We just went, asked for the key, and got in. It was no big deal.
But something like that wouldn’t fly now. You have to be VIRTUS trained, even if you are supervising your own children. Your group will also need liability insurance, AND you’ll have to pay something for rent – and it won’t be cheap. The old school building we are leaving right now is massive and has a crumbling infrastructure. I’m pretty sure they needed a more substantial tenant just to pay for the ongoing repairs an antiquated building needs. Certainly, keeping the lights on and the heat up has to be a high cost.
But other former school buildings in the area are also kind of stingy about being open to other Christian or Catholic groups using their empty spaces. The co-op leadership inquired at 60 different places to find a new home. Only this one in the next county was willing to take it. Even one rather prosperous parish in my area has a meeting room available during the week, but it is not open to groups with children because it bothers the office staff in the rooms above!
The expectations of the faithful.
I mentioned that I am starting a new homeschool co-op because I do not want to follow my old group out of the county. We are being welcomed into a space run by The Church of God. The pastor there is very enthusiastic and happy to have us come to him in the fall! Even did a short speech at our open house a few weeks ago.
It’s a space, it’s very reasonably priced, and the pastor and his congregation are very gracious about having us. I guess I am writing this to explain some things to some Catholic Moms who have asked me why I just don’t move to a different Catholic Church building.
- Affordable places for a homeschool co-op are hard to find. To find a place in a Catholic church, even one that has a closed school, is almost impossible to afford.
- No, we are not able to have mass. But since our day won’t start until 9:15, there are plenty of places to get a morning mass in before you come to co-op.
- Hospitality has not been a key feature of the other places where we have had a homeschool co-op. The pastors never showed up to greet the kids, and if something better came along, there wasn’t much loyalty either. We were just out.
- There aren’t enough Catholic-only families to make a go of it when renting a building. But there are some very solid Christian folks who want to help, and I’m grateful for that!
Overall, it seems as though, at least in my diocese, we have enough real estate and enough closed Catholic schools, that there should be space available for communities to be able to acquire and rent space. But the costs of upkeep and utilities are burdensome, and the needs of the homeschool community are not a priority. But there is something else I have seen as well that maybe Catholic administrators should be aware of – Protestant ministers, especially of smaller congregations, are very welcome to open their doors. There is a hospitality there that is refreshing after so many blockades and rules from Catholic facilities.
That’s something to be mindful of – especially for Catholic moms who struggle to understand why a purely Catholic approach to homeschool co-ops is an almost impossible task to undertake.