Economy a mixed bag for private schools

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Is the economy impacting private schools in Central Indiana? It depends where you look.

The student body at Heritage Christian is smaller than years past.

"We have seen about a 13 percent decrease in new student enrollment," said Heritage Christian School Enrollment Director Emily Iglendza.

Administrators said the blame falls squarely on the economy. In fact, The northeast side school ran out of tuition assistance in May.

"We typically are entering into the summertime, with availability of tuition assistance, so that did affect new student enrollment, pretty significantly," Iglendza added.

Meanwhile, across town on the campus of Park Tudor, it’s a different story.

“We have 987 students in junior kindergarten through grade 12. This year we're at full enrollment and we've actually seen our applications and inquiries go up," Park Tudor Spokesperson Lisa Hendrickson said.

24-Hour News 8 learned that Cathedral High School isn't feeling the pinch either this year. They’ve seen a 4 percent increase in tuition this year, but only have three fewer students enrolled than they did in 2009.

How is Heritage Christian handling the drop in enrollment? They say they won’t be making any program cuts and increased tuition 2 percent this year for students the school plans to shift restricted donations to unrestricted areas like scholarships and other areas.

"And allowing us to hopefully alleviate some of the pressure off of our operating budget, which is very tuition dependent," Iglendza said.