$5 million donation will fund education for students at small Louisville Catholic school

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A small Louisville Catholic school will receive $5 million as part of a massive donation by the former CEO of Eli Lilly and Company.

John and Sarah Lechleiter plan to donate $10 million to establish a new tuition assistance endowment fund for Catholic elementary school families in Louisville, and half of that will go directly to St. James School, where 90% of all students receive tuition aid.

"This is a major breakthrough in the Foundation's strategic plan to expand its impact and perpetuate its mission," Archbishop of Louisville Shelton Fabre said in a news release Wednesday. "How blessed are we to have such generous benefactors as Sarah and John – both Louisville Catholic school graduates who share their blessings with others."

John Lechleiter's father was a 1942 graduate of St. James. Founded in 1906, the school at the corner of Bardstown Road and Edenside Avenue has a student population coming from 35 zip codes around Louisville. Just 48% of the student population at St. James is white, which stands in stark contrast to the neighborhood it sits in, Tyler Park, which is 95% white, according to 2017 data compiled by the University of Louisville and Metro United Way.

"Most of our students are not Catholic," said Rev. Gary Padgett, pastor of both the St. James and St. Brigid parishes. "We do this because we are Catholic. We believe the underserved deserve a good education and we want to give them one."

Padgett said when he arrived at St. James in 2014, many of the neighborhood children had moved out of the area.

"The conventional wisdom was that the school was in its last years for lack of students," he said Wednesday. "But we began to reach out to students in the west end and other areas ... to look at students that needed a good education. We began the slow process of trying to keep the school vitalized."

Students at St. James receive the fourth-most tuition assistance of any Louisville Catholic school, according to the Catholic Education Foundation, many coming from the Portland neighborhood in west Louisville.

"This ensures the longevity of the school for decades — possibly centuries — to come," St. James Principal Gregg Boehmer said. "These kids, these families, need the support. And our goal is to have their children break the chain of poverty."

No more than 5% of the $5 million will be distributed per year, Boehmer said.

"I'm hoping people now realize St. James is here to stay," Padgett said. "The fact that it's small is intentional. It's challenging to operate a small school, because your margins are very small. But the students we are trying to serve need to function in a classroom with no more than 15-18 students in order to excel and succeed. So the people will be able to say 'I can trust sending my child there,' and it's not going to close underneath them.

"I think this will give them all hope."

The other $5 million will go into a new fund managed by the CEF, which awarded $8 million in tuition assistance to 3,700 students this school year, the most in its history.

"Gifts like Sarah’s and John’s give great hope to thousands of families in need who only dream of a Catholic education for their children," Todd Klimek, chair of the CEF board, said in a news release Wednesday. "As we look forward, this gift will turn that dream into their reality."

John and Sarah Lechleiter both grew up in Louisville, attending St. Xavier High School and Sacred Heart Academy, respectively. They've lived in Indianapolis since 1979, and John Lechleiter spent 37 years there with Eli Lilly. He retired as its CEO in 2016.

"It's important to Sarah and me that the unique mission of Saint James School continues," John Lechleiter said in a news release Wednesday. "The new $5 million fund dedicated to the school and its students in need will help ensure that families can send their children to the school with joy and confidence in its future."