Several NYC-area Catholic schools set to close by end of school year
NEW YORK - Four Catholic schools in New York City and another one in Westchester will close at the end of the year, with officials citing declining enrollment and financial pressures as reasons for the closures.
The schools that will close are:
St. Matthias Catholic Academy in Ridgewood, Queens
St. Catherine of Genoa ~ St. Thérèse of Lisieux in East Flatbush, Brooklyn
Salve Regina Catholic Academy in East New York, Brooklyn
St. Simon Stock School in the Bronx
Transfiguration School in Tarrytown, Westchester County
The reasons for Catholic schools closing are many. They include tuition costs, declining enrollment, and fewer adults joining religious vocations.
The Catholic Church has also been rocked for decades by a worldwide clergy sex abuse scandal.
Despite the closures, Deacon Kevin McCormack, Superintendent of Schools in the Brooklyn diocese, says he is not losing hope about the future of Catholic school education.
:These are very sad days anytime you have to close a school, we have five schools, five catholic schools in the metropolitan area closing, three in the Brooklyn diocese, two in the Archdiocese of New York, that's a tough time," McCormack said. "What we need to do in Catholic schools is to prove to people again that this is a place of value. It's a place you could be confident that your kids are going to become great adults."
