When Jim Pompa read the letter that said his sons’ school was under study, the feeling that followed was familiar.

Pompa - whose two sons, Lucas and Seth, are students at St. John Neumann Regional School - went through a similar ordeal just a few years ago. The boys’ former school, SS. Peter and Paul Catholic, went under study in 2014. It ended up closing that same year.

“It was familiar territory,” Pompa said. “We had gone through the process of a study being done then.”

Pompa said the March 5 letter made him realize St. John Neumann could meet the same fate.

“Although the reality of that hit me last week,” he said, “I’m also hopeful that the communities will pull together, and the families will pull together, and the pastors of the parishes will pull together to keep the school going.”

“There’s love in this school,” Pompa continued.

That same fighting spirit was shared by a group of St. John Neumann parents recently. Like Pompa, some hope the school can be saved through upped fundraising efforts.

Following a diocese-approved presentation about the school’s financial predicament delivered by Principal Mary Comensky, the 30-odd group talked prospective charity events, financial independence and keeping St. John’s doors open at a recent home and school association meeting.

“We are in trouble,” Kelly Erickson, home and school association president, told the crowd gathered last Wednesday.

“I feel like we’re supposed to be here,” Erickson said, “but for that, we’re going to seriously need to step up our game. … We need to put up or shut up.”

Comensky’s presentation followed a letter sent out earlier this month, where priests from three parishes announced a feasibility study into whether or not the school can continue operations, was requested.

The Diocese of Allentown will conduct the study, the results of which should come out at the end of March.

Comensky revealed that three parishes, Sacred Heart, Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Nicholas, provide subsidies making up one-third of St. John’s budget. While their annual contribution has steadily decreased over the past decade, the churches committed-to endowment for the 2019-20 academic year was just over $205,000.

When St. John Neumann opened in August, 65 students were registered, a record low over the last eight years. But Comensky said a handful of new recruits have already registered for 2020-21, which will bring the roster to 72 students.

That’s still lower than the school’s target goal, but Comensky was confident that number can improve.

Ultimately, Comensky said, the school needs to become less reliant on parish subsidies and more self-sustaining.

When the news of the study broke, Matt Kerr, spokesman for the diocese, said St. John’s future, and possible closure, has yet to be determined.

Another school, Kerr told Times News, is also under study: St. Theresa in Hellertown, Northampton County.

If St. John Neumann, which has campuses in Palmerton and Slatington, does close, there will be no more Catholic schools in Carbon County.