Turmoil follows school firings - Archmere Academy

National Catholic Reporter, May 11, 2001 by Margot Patterson

The letter to Rome was sent by six people calling themselves The Friends of Archmere. They included Biden and Michele Rollins, widow of trucking magnate John W. Rollins Sr. and an Archmere benefactor. The letter raised questions about the leadership provided by the executive committee and complained of a recent decision by the Norbertine Fathers to close the Patio to social events.

For years the Patio, the Renaissance mansion built by the Raskobs, had been the site of social events at the school. School proms and other school functions were held in the Patio along with fundraisers and alumni events. During the past five years, the Norbertines had converted the Patio into a priory called Immaculate Conception Priory, which housed a community of approximately 20 priests and monks. Some but not all of the priests housed at the priory worked at Archmere Academy, including Collins and Mullen.

According to Tom Mallon, Archmere's director of development, the priests at the priory had repaired a stained glass ceiling at the mansion and in the process were confronted with an array of other structural problems that had to be addressed and left them believing that because of the expense involved continuous use of the priory endangered the building. A decision to eliminate social gatherings at the Patio was made.

Many alumni were unhappy with the decision, which was posted on the Archmere Alumni Web site. They began a letter-writing campaign. In early April Michelle Rollins delivered the letters, along with the letter from the Friends of Archmere, to the abbot general in Rome.

The impassioned response of Archmere parents, students and alumni to the dismissals relates to what many of them said is the special atmosphere at the academy. Franceschino, Alumni Association president, called the Norbertine priests a tremendously caring group of people. "These priests are just incredible," said Franceschino. "They baptize our children, they attend our parents' funerals, they marry us."

Franceschino said a special bond exists between the student, the school and the Norbertines. "When you graduate from Archmere you never really leave. If you do leave, it's because you've chosen to leave," he said.

Ro Donohue, a parent of a graduate of Archmere, agreed that Archmere is a rare place. Donohue said she had attended an all-girls Catholic school in New York and had never seen anything like the love and loyalty engendered by Archmere's faculty and staff.

Teachers and administrators say problems at the academy had been brewing for several years. Some of the problems at Archmere date back to a fissure within the Norbertine community that occurred in 1997 when the group was unable to resolve philosophical differences about where the community should be located. Up to that time, Norbertines who taught and lived at Archmere were affiliated with Daylesford Abbey in Paoli, Pa. With the community divided, some Nobertines left Daylesford and moved to Archmere but had no connection to the academy. Because his loyalties remained with Daylesford, an Archmere Academy headmaster of 12 years, Fr. Joseph McLaughlin, was removed. "That caused a bone of contention with alumni and also internally," said Mallon, who described McLaughlin as one of the most revered persons in Archmere history.