Nun Run breaks habit as protests planned over La Reina High closure

The Nun Run has traditionally welcomed thousands of runners to a Thousand Oaks course — centered around La Reina High School and Middle School — over its 10 year history.

This year, there will be none.

Race organizers announced Monday they were canceling the event and taking the annual fundraiser virtual as protesters gear up to demonstrate Saturday against the Sisters of Notre Dame's planned closure of the 59-year-old all-girls Catholic school.

"We have listened over the past few days to many people who are angry and saddened by the announcement that (La Reina) will be closing," run organizers wrote in an emailed message to participants. "Holding the event at the school, at this time, we believe, may only further sow division in our community."

It's the latest disappointment in the week or so since school President Tony Guevara announced the school's closing at the end of the academic year. Frustration has only grown between representatives of the Sisters of Notre Dame — a Catholic religious order — and the school community they helped create.

The Sisters of Notre Dame's National Ministry Corporation oversees La Reina's lay governing board, which underwent a dramatic overhaul in January. Seven of the nine directors on the board at the beginning of the month "resigned or were asked to resign," according to documents and the corporation's chief operating officer. The corporation replaced the seven departing members with three others with ties to the religious order.

COO Laura Koehl did not respond to requests for an interview on Wednesday.

The new board's decision to close La Reina, Guevara wrote in his Jan. 24 announcement, came amid dwindling enrollment and depleted reserves.

Save La Reina emerges

The decision to close caught parents, alumni and even some staff by surprise, but the community quickly mobilized.

Save La Reina, the group at the center of organizing efforts, has racked up nearly 2,000 followers on Facebook and hundreds of signatures on a handful of online petitions in the last week. The group planned protests at La Reina during Saturday's Nun Run and organizers said Wednesday their plans won't change despite the event's cancellation.

This week, the group drafted a letter to send to leaders of the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, "entreating" them to "reconsider and reverse the decision." The letter had gathered more than 350 virtual signatures as of Wednesday evening.

The archdiocese, however, has no oversight or control over the school. Archdiocese spokesperson Carolina Guevara, no relation to La Reina's president, said in an email Wednesday that it was still "committed" to helping school leaders transition La Reina students to other Catholic schools.

"Our prayers are with the La Reina school community during this time of transition," she wrote.

Warning signs or no?

On Thursday, the school's current board responded in an email to some questions raised at a Jan. 25 community meeting and online over the last week.

Protesters have argued that the corporation gave the La Reina community little to no warning about the pending closure and rejected some attempts to keep the campus afloat, including a budget proposal proffered by the previous iteration of La Reina's board.

Some worried that the order plans to sell the 11-acre campus and the rest of the much larger parcel on which it sits.

But La Reina, the board wrote, is projected to have lost money in four of the last five fiscal years, including the most recent. Enrollment has halved in the last eight years.

"The announcement that La Reina would close was deeply shocking to many people," the board wrote. "We know and understand that. But the warning signs have been clear and out there for years."

The closure decision was due only to the "hard facts" of La Reina's finances and enrollment, the board wrote, and the order has no current discussions or deals in place to sell the land.

The former board's budget proposal, based in part on tuition increases and a slight increase in enrollment, was "not responsible," the letter reads.

"Budget forecasts and assumptions must be grounded in a healthy reality and a fair level of certainty," the board wrote. The proposed budget would put the school at risk of closing in the middle of the next school year.

Not buying it

Save La Reina organizers dismissed the board's missive in a Wednesday email of their own, calling it an attempt to "distract and divert" the community from the school's "continued lack of transparency and refusal to consider viable options to preserve the life of our school."

Allyson and Annaliese Adams, two sisters from a family of four La Reina alums both said they didn't buy the board's letter either. Their mother, Rebecca Adams, remains a teacher at the school.

"The board has intentionally evaded questions for the sake of maintaining power in the situation," said Allyson, a 2013 graduate.

"They didn't seem like they came from a place of actually wanting to provide answers to the school," said Annaliese, of the class of 2018.

Kristin Fischer, a mother of two current La Reina students, said the board's letter was discouraging.

"It just felt like they were trying to defend their position," she said.

'A small window to save the place'

Both of the Adams sisters plan to be at Saturday's protests. Allyson said she remains "hopeful" after seeing the response from the community over the last week.

The school could continue on in a different form, she posited, even if the Janss Road campus does close. But she's hoping the campus can be saved.

"It's a small window to save the place itself," Allyson said.

Fischer and her two daughters will miss the protest. They've got other plans for Saturday morning: Both girls will be busy taking admissions tests for another private school the family is considering for the fall.

But Fischer still hopes La Reina will remain an option.

"It's such a special place for so many girls."

Isaiah Murtaugh covers education for the Ventura County Star in partnership with Report for America. Reach him at isaiah.murtaugh@vcstar.com or 805-437-0236 and follow him on Twitter @isaiahmurtaugh and @vcsschools. You can support this work with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Nun Run undone at La Reina High as protests planned