Two archdiocesan schools receive $500,000 gift from anonymous donor

Sue Lovegreen, principal at Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary School in Maplewood, said she could tell by the sound of Brian Ragatz’s voice that something was up. “You could hear the smile in his voice,” she said about that call late last year from the president of the Catholic Schools Center of Excellence.

“It was like a little kid with a surprise he just couldn’t wait to share,” Lovegreen said. She guessed it was financial help. And she was right — except for the dollar amount. Lovegreen thought it might be word on a grant for which she applied — and could be for $10,000, $20,000, maybe even $25,000.

To Lovegreen’s surprise, Ragatz relayed that an anonymous donor had gifted Presentation school with $500,000.

Less than three miles away, Inna Collier Paske, principal at St. Pascal Regional Catholic School in St. Paul, received a similar call from Ragatz — that the same donor had given her school a $500,000 gift.

“It was amazing,” Collier Paske said. “It definitely felt like a Christmas miracle for us.”

Flabbergasted by the amount, Lovegreen said, “We don’t get these gifts very often, and how beautiful that (the donor) wants to stay anonymous. I really want to honor that person (by) being a good steward of this gift because they want to touch the minds and hearts and the souls of our students and leave a legacy.”

Both schools are determining specifics on how the money will be used as they take a deliberative approach and plan for the future.

Presentation plans to set aside half of the gift amount in an endowment to secure the school’s financial longevity, Lovegreen said.

“We’re hoping to encourage other constituents and donors to add to that so that our endowment grows and that, again, gives us sustainability,” she said, with the goal to revitalize and strengthen their school.

Other uses for the funds will be identified from information collected in surveys from Presentation’s staff and school families, and from a comprehensive assessment, Lovegreen said. Some ideas include bringing arts back to the school and improving the science curriculum for middle school students.

“We will use feedback … to help guide our focused areas, and then we’ll be using our guiding principles to make decisions going forward,” she said.

St. Pascal formed a team with input from teachers, parents and the school board to maximize the benefit for its entire school community, Collier Paske said.

“It definitely will be a plan that will contribute to the longevity of the school and help our school thrive for the future,” she said.

While categories are not yet defined, Collier Paske said that improving programs for students would be key “because students are the center of everything.”

“We are very grateful for this anonymous donor,” Collier Paske said. “I think that the best gift, the best thank-you to this donor is when we continue to give back … to keep paying it forward … to the families — an excellence that we can provide at the school and keep striving (for) at our school.”

“We couldn’t be more thrilled to support these two wonderful schools with such amazing traditions,” said Ragatz, who took the leadership position at CSCOE last summer after serving as principal of St. Michael Catholic School in St. Michael. “Although there is still a need for additional financial support, this is a game-changing investment, and I know the schools will use it in game-changing ways to support the students now while building a future for generations to come.”