OJAI : Plan Abandoned for New Catholic School

Plans to open a new Catholic school in Ojai this fall have been abandoned because owners have decided to sell the building where the school was to be located.

William Olivas, business manager of St. Thomas Aquinas Church, said the parish’s finance committee decided in June to sell the building, but had considered leasing it to a group of Ojai parents who wanted to run their own Catholic school.

The parents had formed a committee to open a school after church officials decided not to resume classes at St. Thomas Aquinas School this fall because there were too few students to justify keeping the facility open, Olivas said.

The new school, to be called St. Rita Catholic School, was not to be affiliated with St. Thomas Aquinas Church, Olivas said.

The former parish school building is among downtown property that has been or is being sold since St. Thomas Aquinas Church moved to Meiners Oaks. The church convent building has been sold, and sale of the chapel building is pending, Olivas said.

Larry Shields, who headed the committee to open St. Rita Catholic School, declined to comment on whether a new location for the school would be sought.