TOLEDO, Ohio — Every student at St. Francis de Sales High School will be receiving a $1,000 tuition assistance grant, for the 2020-21 school year, leaders announced Friday.
The decision was made in an effort to give students some financial support because as the coronavirus pandemic has impacted a number of families in different ways.
An additional tuition assistance fund has also been created by the Board of Trustees and the Development Office which will be distributed to families on a case-by-case basis.
"We wanted to get out in front of this and to be able to say to each of our families, 'Here are some way that we can help you,' both in the grant and then that additional pool of financial aid. If you don't need it, you can donate it back, and several have done that," St. Francis de Sales President Father Geoff Rose said.
The school has just under 700 students enrolled, totaling the funding to nearly $700,000.
Father Rose said that parents don't need to do anything because funds are already on their invoice.
"It was right there, $800 towards tuition and $200 towards the activity fee. And that's true to any student so if someone was coming new, that would apply to them as well," he said.
The funding was made possible because of the financial management of the school over the last couple of years, Father Rose said.
"It's not that we just took a pot of money and moved it into this, but it is real dollars for us. It is an acknowledgement that while it's a crisis time, it wasn't time for us to pull in our door and protect the institution. We are all in this together," he said.
This grant funding is not something they can do every year, Father Rose said, but it's something they could do this year, considering the circumstances.