By Donald Gilpin

Princeton Academy of the Sacred Heart announced last week that, due to financial challenges, it will be closing at the end of the 2023-24 school year.

The school, located on a 50-acre campus on Great Road, was founded in 1999 in seeking to meet the need for a “values-based” private school for boys in grades K-8, according to the Princeton Academy website.

A letter to the Princeton Academy community signed by the school’s Board of Trustees Chair Olen Kalkus and Head of School Alfred (Rik) F. Dugan reports, “Princeton Academy continues to face financial challenges brought on by changing demographics and rising costs.”

The letter notes that the board had been pursuing various options to keep the school open, including sales of assets, efforts to increase enrollment, additional support from donors, and possible mergers with other institutions.

The letter continues, “However, despite our best efforts to find workable solutions, and after careful consideration, reflection, and discernment, the Board of Trustees has unanimously made the most difficult decision to close operations of Princeton Academy of the Sacred Heart at the end of the current school year.”

Princeton Academy will remain fully open throughout the current school year, the letter states. “Rest assured, this decision will have no impact on the 2023-24 academic year,” it says. “Princeton Academy will continue to offer the same outstanding program we have had since 1999, and all planned activities will remain unchanged.”

The board goes on to add that it is currently in discussion with Aldenham Education Group, one of the oldest schools in England, to “potentially allow for a new school, under a new banner, to begin operations in the fall of 2024.” More information about this possibility is expected to be available in the next two months.

The Princeton Academy board has been conducting a number of meetings and conversations  to help the school community understand the board’s decision and the best options for the future.

“We understand that this news may come as a shock and that you will have many questions,” the letter states. “One of the questions we know will be on everybody’s mind is how Princeton Academy intends to assist students, families, faculty, staff, and alumni. We plan to engage with each group directly in a series of meetings, and we hope the initial conversations we have in the coming weeks will provide both an understanding of our decision and how we can move forward.”

Dugan declined to comment further on the school’s financial difficulties or on the demographic challenges faced by Princeton
Academy. 

Princeton Academy started out in 1999 with 34 students in grades K-3 and the next year grew to 94 students in K-6. It purchased the current property in December 2000, and in November 2003 received accreditation from the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. In 2008 Princeton Academy was formally admitted into the network of Sacred Heart Schools.