Sisters: We must sell Good Counsel campus
Officials representing the Sisters of the Divine Compassion say financial issues common in recent years to Catholic religious orders forced the group to put its Good Counsel campus in White Plains up for sale.
Geoff Thompson, a spokesman for the order, told the Business Journal the combination of the congregation”™s nuns aging and fewer young women joining the order have put the congregation in economic peril. After examining potential solutions over the past 15 years, the sisters decided to sell the 16-acre property on North Broadway, which includes an elementary school and a high school, Thompson said.
“They started looking at options back in 2000, and a lot of actuarial work was done,” Thompson said. As the sisters received and evaluated the actuarial data, they realized their economic situation was unsustainable, he said.
In a letter sent to parents of students at the schools on Nov. 14, Sister Carol Wagner, president of the order, said operating the Good Counsel campus costs the order more than $600,000 each year, which has been depleting the congregation”™s savings.
“Through the sale of the campus, we will be in a financial position to ensure that our sisters can be properly and adequately cared for,” Wagner wrote. “Within a few years, a very small number of sisters will be left to support a large number of sisters ranging in age from 75 to 95 years old.”
Wagner said in the letter that the sisters do not have the money to make capital investments in the campus, which has an aging infrastructure and costs $1.7 million annually to operate. In a question-and-answer piece sent with the letter, Wagner noted the average age of the 81 sisters is 77 ”“ with six sisters over the age of 90, 23 in their 80s and 40 in their 70s.
Wagner wrote that the school”™s administration knew of the financial situation over a decade ago and knew that it was not a viable situation in the long term.
“This did not crop up overnight. The administration of the schools knew, and the principals certainly knew,” Thompson said when asked about parents saying they were blindsided with the news of the campus sale. “I”™m sure for some of the parents, this came as a shock, and it probably could have been handled better.”
According to both Wagner”™s letter and Thompson, attempts to raise funds were made but ultimately were insufficient.
“All of the properties owned by the sisters were thoroughly evaluated,” Thompson said. “The property that is the most costly to operate and holds the most value is the Good Counsel campus, and that”™s why it is on the market.”
The letter sent by Wagner emphasized that the disposition of the campus is a complex matter.
Commercial real estate firm CBRE Group Inc. has the exclusive listing of the Good Counsel campus. Bill Cuddy, an executive vice president at CBRE, declined to comment on any bids that have been made on the property.
At a rally outside the Good Counsel Campus gates Nov. 19, parents and students voiced support for the Good Counsel schools and expressed concern about how the Sisters of the Divine Compassion were handling the sale of the campus.
“There was a recent bid, we found out, from a church group that wanted to save the property, have the nuns stay here and keep the schools,” said Jennifer Lewis, who is part of a group of parents that formed a corporation trying to preserve the schools. Save the Good Counsel Community Now Inc. was incorporated last month as a not-for-profit entity. “(Members of the religious group bidding on the property) were willing to work with our group, but the nuns shut it down.”
Representing the sisters, Thompson also declined to comment on any specific bids or bidders.
“There are a seemingly endless number of rumors about this,” Thompson said. “This is a very emotional situation for parents and students, not to mention the sisters who have been there for 125 years. It would be better for both sides to work together and find options for the school that are not on the Good Counsel campus.”