Dear Parish Family,

I am excited to share with you the extensive expansion of the EdChoice state scholarship program. All K-12 students now qualify to receive a state-funded EdChoice scholarship that could cover a portion of, in some cases, the full cost of their Catholic school tuition. Catholic education just became more affordable than ever for families!

With the new EdChoice budget, families with an adjusted gross income under 450% of the federal poverty line (FPL) will receive the maximum scholarship, which amounts to $6,165 per K-8 student ($8,407 for 9-12 students). For example, a family of four making $135,000 or less would receive the full $6,165 EdChoice scholarship for each K-8 child. Families over 450% of the FPL will receive a partial scholarship on a sliding scale. All families are guaranteed at least a $650 EdChoice scholarship.

We are encouraging all our school families to apply for the EdChoice scholarship this year, and we are raising our tuition from $5,500 to $6,165 to maximize scholarship potential. I know it seems counterintuitive, but by making tuition go UP we can actually make the family tuition burden come DOWN due to the multiple levers of scholarship assistance available to us through EdChoice scholarships and the Angel Scholarship Fund.

Working together with EdChoice scholarships, our Angel Scholarship Fund (ASF) and our Adopt-a-Student funds now have a further reach. For example, a family receiving the full EdChoice scholarship will no longer need an ASF scholarship. That ASF scholarship money now becomes available to a family who will only receive a partial EdChoice scholarship. To make Catholic education affordable for all families, we will continue to promote tax credit contributions to ASF which come at no net cost to donors.

Moreover, by raising tuition and maximizing scholarship potential, we can reduce the family out-of-pocket tuition burden by hundreds of thousands of dollars, increase our school revenue by about $100,000 this coming year, lower our parish subsidy, offer more Catholic formation for our teachers and students especially with Theology of the Body lessons, and, most importantly we will be able to increase our teacher compensation to be competitive with public school teacher salaries. 

I am very grateful for the educational opportunities that the State of Ohio is now offering to our families through the expanded EdChoice scholarship. We have shared this good news with our school and PSR families, and are working with our Geauga parochial schools on a bulk mailing to all Geauga county residents. I hope you will help me share with others the good news of an affordable, irresistibly Catholic, and academically excellent education provided by St. Mary School to give all of our children the opportunity to deepen their faith and knowledge of Christ and His Church!

Oktoberfest Invite
Save the date for our Parish Oktoberfest on Sunday, September 17. We will start the celebration with a Polka Mass at 12:00 pm in the main tent in the rear parking lot, and have some delicious German food and beverages from 1 - 7 pm. We have lots of fun activities planned for all ages. Oktoberfest is free to attend, and tickets will be available at the door or by online preorder. Please consider volunteering for a shift. Visit https://stmarychardon.org/oktoberfest-2023 for volunteer signups and pre-ticket sales.

I am yours in Christ,
Fr. Scott Goodfellow