DAYS MAY be numbered for seven Catholic schools in Queens, but parents and administrators are busy trying to persuade church officials to grant their schools deliverance. Officials from the Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens have held more than 20 meetings with principals and parent leaders since announcing plans last week to close 14 of its elementary schools, including seven in Queens, said diocesan spokesman the Rev. Kieran Harrington. Hope for a reprieve stems from the fact Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, who heads the diocese, will not make final decisions on closings until next month.
"Nobody has guaranteed me that I am closing yet," said Virginia Daly, principal of St. Aloysius School in Ridgewood, one of the Queens schools targeted for closure at the end of the school year. "These are proposals and these proposals are being debated," Daly added, noting that her school is preparing to challenge the closing. The diocese has closed 32 of its elementary schools since 2005 as it faces steadily declining enrollment and mounting costs. A decade ago, 55,000 children attended its elementary schools. This year, an estimated 37,000 students were enrolled.
Diocesan officials have met with all seven Queens schools slated to be shuttered, Harrington said. Following the meetings, administrators have one week to respond to the diocese's recommendation. Harrington stressed that recommendations are not set in stone and could be "amended" based upon the information schools submit. St. Ann School and St. Michael School, both in Flushing, also are slated to close. The diocese wants to absorb students from these two schools into St. Mary's Nativity, also in Flushing.Principal Robert DiNardo of St. Ann School said the talks are centering on reducing the three Flushing schools down to two, not one. "It is up to us to present our case and to the powers that be to decide which one has the best merit," DiNardo said. The four other schools slated for closure are Blessed Sacrament in Jackson Heights, St. Catherine of Siena in St. Albans, St. Benedict Joseph Labre in Richmond Hill and St. Anthony of Padua in South Ozone Park.
/johnny
.
the change of status won’t put them under any federal or state funding that will cause the gov’t to want to gain control, will it? PTL for the school and their mission.