RIVERDALE -- Twelve people were laid off recently at Christian Heritage School as administrators try to handle a deficit it has had since the school year began.
"It's been a hard time for a lot of private schools," said Steve Diehl, interim headmaster.
"We pay our bills as we go. We don't have a large endowment, we don't have a lot of margin. We realized, to get through the year, we had to do some layoffs."
Six full-time and six part-time positions were eliminated to save money, Diehl said. Five of those positions were teachers, while the rest worked in the administration office.
"We're committing to continuing the school, but we are facing major financial challenges," he said.
Diehl said the school also is trying to raise money through its annual fundraiser to help close the deficit and has received donations from many parents whose children attend the school.
The school, founded in 1991, teaches kindergarten through 12th grade in two buildings on 1050 West in Riverdale.
The high school was hit hardest by the layoffs, Diehl said, with computer and foreign language classes cut.
"There was a teacher for just a handful of students," Diehl said about the classes. "It was too inefficient. The high school was hit harder because that's where we have inefficiency."
The elementary school lost computer classes, leaving classroom teachers rather than a specialized computer teacher, to instruct students in computer labs.
Diehl said the deficit has been caused by low enrollment.
"Enrollment has been down the last two years. There are two big factors. The economy -- it's been a tough burden on families -- and having students leave to go to a charter school. It's kind of a public and private school blend at no cost, which is hard to compete with."
Diehl said the school's "last resort" would be to have more layoffs after the school year, but he hopes enough donations will come in that the school will not have to make any more cuts.
"The board has talked about financial issues before, but sometimes you don't have everyone's attention until something severe like this happens."
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