Exciting opportunities await Guardian Angels’ new campus

When long-term plans turn into a short-term opportunity, moves are made.

Guardian Angels Regional School’s upper school (4th-8th grades) is moving from its home of 18 years in Paulsboro to the long-idle Saint Joseph School in Swedesboro, which had been most recently used for Saint Clare of Assisi Parish’s faith formation classes.

Father Edward Kennedy, pastor of the Gibbstown-Swedesboro parish, said that the original plan was to renovate the Swedesboro school building on Kings Highway so that the parish could increase its use of available space for parish education purposes. That was until Bishop Dennis Sullivan’s College of Consultors, priests who advise the bishop on governance and administration of the Diocese, pointed to a troubling trend.

“When we started looking at the numbers for the school, [the Consultors] noted that we were losing families every year because families wouldn’t travel to the other side of the parish,” Father Kennedy said.

Further, Sister Jerilyn Einstein, FMIJ, school principal, said that a shift in population within the Saint Clare of Assisi Parish had been affecting enrollment.

“The necessity for the move from Paulsboro to Swedesboro was [further supported] because of the shift in population,” she said. “We noticed that in the Swedesboro/Woolwich area that there is a large population growth. The growth was not in Paulsboro, so that would affect our enrollment.”

Father Kennedy saw the move as an opportunity to grow the school into an area where most of the parish’s young families are living.

“It was kind of a now-or-never type of thing,” he said, “because the longer we put it off, we were only going to continue losing families. The good thing is that our numbers are already looking great this year.”

Marcie Voight, the school’s advancement director, agreed. “We’ve had quite a bit of interest from the Swedesboro/Woolwich and even Clearview Regional districts.”

While many families saw an ad for the new location in local press, it seemed like most people heard by word-of-mouth. “We’ve actually had quite a bit of interest,” Voight said.

Guardian Angels Regional School has a current enrollment of 161 students in K-8 and 41 students in Pre-K.

Another benefit of the move is the opportunity for students to attend Mass and Adoration in Saint Joseph Church about a block away.

“Now kids will be able to come to Mass with the whole parish community,” Father Kennedy said. “They’ll get to experience Adoration that we do on Fridays, deepening the faith in the kids. That is a huge thing.”

The move did not come without its growing pains.

“Two challenges that we faced was transportation between the new Swedesboro location and the lower school location in Gibbstown,” Sister Jerilyn said. “Between Paulsboro and Gibbstown was a five-minute distance, and now we’re talking about a 15-minute distance.”

For parents who have children on both campuses, or parents who have children who live closer to Gibbstown, the school has contracted with a bus company, making Gibbstown the hub.

“Families who have problems with transportation will be able to drop their children off at the Gibbstown campus, and they will be bussed to Swedesboro and back to Gibbstown at the end of the day,” Sister Jerilyn said.

Some families were concerned that the school in Swedesboro does not have a gym, however sports teams will continue to use the Paulsboro gym. There is no plan for selling the Paulsboro school. “It was never part of the plan to do this [move] so we could sell off the property,” Father Kennedy said. For special events like school dances, the school can use the parish hall located next to the church.

Sister Jerilyn said that parent responses have been positive. “It’s being received by the families very well, and they seem excited about it,” she said.

Families were informed at the beginning of the process. “We had a night in Swedesboro where parents could ask questions and voice their concerns,” Sister Jerilyn said. “We explained the whole process to them.”

Tanya Schneider, a parent of two students currently enrolled and two children who are alumni, said with all the new updates, everyone is excited.

“We are in Swedesboro, and members of the parish, so to be closer to home was perfect,” Schneider said. “The kids are excited that they are a mile away and they can sleep in a little longer.”

Father Kennedy said that in the few short months they have been working on the building, “What they’ve done is remarkable. There are new windows and air conditioning throughout the building, flooring, everything is brand new.”

The 107-year-old building will house Pre-K, a large multipurpose room, and music room on the basement floor with room to expand Pre-K. The main floor will have classrooms for grades four through eight, and the top floor will be for class specials, a room for Gloucester County Special Services, and classrooms for the parish faith formation programs. “It will be a busy place once again,” Father Kennedy said.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony is planned for Sept. 3, with opening day on Sept. 4.

“All around, it’s going to be a good boost for the school community, the parish community, to bring life back into [the building],” Father Kennedy said.