Consolidation plan continues

Catholic diocese: Schools in eastern communities are next to ‘regionalize’

Elementary schools in the eastern part of the city and the surrounding suburbs will be the next to “regionalize” under the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh’s plan to consolidate schools and parishes.

The diocese announced the formation of an 11-member advisory board, made up of six pastors and five lay members from the 57 parishes in the region dubbed “Pittsburgh-East,” according to an article published Friday in the diocesan newsletter, The Pittsburgh Catholic. That board will help implement a new consolidated administrative structure for the schools.

The school changes are part of the larger On Mission for the Church Alive restructuring plan, in which the diocese is attempting to combine an evangelistic push with the need to get leaner amid declining membership and Mass attendance. A similar model eventually will be put in place at all schools throughout the diocese, which has seen a 50 percent drop in overall elementary school enrollment since 2000.

The 14 schools in the eastern region will undergo a similar consolidation process as 11 schools in the North Hills underwent earlier this year. The schools in the North Hills are now jointly supported with the help of more than 30 parishes, rather than the single parishes to which they were attached, and overseen by a nine-member board and a nonprofit.

The schools in the PittsburghEast region are: • St. Agnes in West Mifflin • St. Bede in Point Breeze • St. Bernadette in Monroeville • East Catholic in Forest Hills • St. John the Baptist in Plum • St. Joseph in Verona • St. Maria Goretti in Bloomfield • Mary of Nazareth in White Oak • North American Martyrs in Monroeville

• Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Natrona Heights • St. Raphael in Morningside • St. Rosalia in Greenfield • Sacred Heart in Shadyside • St. Therese in Munhall Enrollment data for the 14 schools was not immediately available. St. Benedict the Moor in the Hill District and Sister Thea Bowman Catholic Academy in Wilkinsburg, both supported by the Extra Mile Foundation, are not included in the regionalization plans.