Catholic school in Dansville to close

     Bill Bacon is a banker with no children of his own.  Yet he's making it his mission to keep a faith based school in Dansville.  "The school means a lot to this community.  It means a lot to the parents, the alumni.  It's not something we want to see go away," said Bacon.

     Holy Family School is closing its doors in June.  Meanwhile, the school board is scrambling to come up with $50,000 to open an independent Christian school in the same building.

"In order to expand the horizon a bit we decided we needed to go towards a Christian based school opposed to a Catholic School so that we didn't narrow our scope so much," said Bacon.

     One of the hurdles is getting permission from the parish to use the school building.  I asked Father Stephen Karani if he’d let them use the school building.  "I'd have to go through the legal implications but I would not have any objections."

     Parents have their fingers crossed a new school will open.  "Because the opportunity is there to be lost people need to be more vocal and active in this," said Mike Kozak, a parent.

     Parents are hoping investors will jump on board and support a new school.  Regardless it's likely tuition will cost more next year.  But parents say it's worth it.  "It teaches them values they can take home and share back and forth between home and school," said Dorothy Hotchkiss, a grandparent.

     Everyone at Holy Family realizes the only way this can happen is if the school opens by September.  "We need to make this a seamless transition.  We don't want these students who are currently enrolled to go away find another school and then come back in after and say we're open again," said Bacon.

     The school board realizes time is running out.  They plan to start the registration process for the new school by mid April.  Other options for parents are St. Agnes school in Avon, as well as St. Ann school in Hornell.