Parents unhappy with closures at St. Raphael, St. Sylvester schools
Earlier this year, parents and parishioners at St. Raphael Catholic Church in Morningside breathed a sigh of relief when, after they managed to raise $ 250,000, the diocese told them they had saved their school from closure.
But instead, part of that money will be used to provide tuition assistance for students to attend other Catholic schools within the diocese, and the remainder of the funds covered the operating deficit for the now- shuttered school.
The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh recently announced that two schools — St. Raphael and St. Sylvester in Brentwood — would be closing this summer, just weeks before the start of the new school year and months after the diocese said those schools would remain open for at least one more school year. The move left parents scrambling to make arrangements for their children before the first day of a new school year, and disappointed in the last- minute decisions to close them.
“I was absolutely shocked,” said Jerry Maloney, who had three children enrolled at St. Raphael. “I would have been prepared to move sixth to eighth grade — the numbers were smaller there. But then to pull the rug out from under K- 5, especially three weeks before the new school year, I thought was just a monumental failure of planning.”
In both cases, the diocese said it was forced to close the schools because of a sharp decline in enrollment since the initial announcement in February that the schools were safe from immediate shutdown. Only 39 students were confirmed enrolled at St. Raphael, with fewer than 10 students in each class, officials said in a letter earlier this month. Fifty- seven
“If they had done this six months earlier, they would have saved everybody a lot of heartache.” — Jerry Maloney, a parent who had three children enrolled at St. Raphael
students were confirmed at St. Sylvester, officials told parishioners there.
At St. Raphael, parishioners raised $ 250,000 in about two months to cover the school’s deficit and keep it open. Since the school will be closing after all, some of that money will cover an additional $ 1,000 in tuition assistance for each St. Raphael student if they choose to attend another Catholic school within the diocese, said the Rev. Kris Stubna, board president for the Pittsburgh East Regional Catholic Elementary Schools. The rest will help pay off the school’s operating deficit.
Father Stubna said 38 of the 39 students at St. Raphael have enrolled in other diocesan schools for next year, and all but one of the displaced teachers were offered positions at other Catholic schools.
Mr. Maloney, whose two oldest children will attend Sacred Heart Catholic School next year while his youngest remains in the St. Raphael pre- kindergarten program, said the priests were doing what they could “to make the community feel better” about the closure and to do right by the teachers. But the timing of the decision was still disappointing, and Mr. Maloney said he feels the diocese misrepresented the low enrollment at the school when it announced the closure.
“They have so many good friends there, and they love the teachers. They are very upset that they are going to be moving on,” he said about his children.“If they had done this six months earlier, they would have saved everybody a lot of heartache.”
Kim Brennan, whose two sons were enrolled at St. Sylvester, said parents there also were disappointed in the abrupt decision. She was among a group of parents who met with Bishop David Zubik earlier this year in an attempt to save the school, and in February when he announced it would stay open another year, there were “no contingencies,” she said.
“There was no required
fundraising, there were no required new enrollments,” Ms. Brennan said.
But after that announcement, she said teachers were told the school might not be open next year, and families were encouraged to enroll their children elsewhere “just in case.”
“Given everything that’s going on in the diocese, there’s certainly a trust issue there,” Ms. Brennan said. “We kept up as hard as we could, but when the administration of your parish is fighting you every step of the way, it’s very difficult to make that happen.”
St. Sylvester school is not strong financially, but the parish could have supported it for one more school year while it underwent the “regionalization” process other diocesan schools have gone through, Ms. Brennan said.
The diocese has put the Catholic elementary schools into clusters that “regionalize” under a shared administration. 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 declines in membership and Mass attendance. The diocesan elementary schools have lost about 50% of their enrollment since 2000. In other school regions, the change has meant school closures and mergers in some cases.
Ms. Brennan said parents asked that St. Sylvester stay open for just one more year before the southern cluster of schools regionalized, so the students would only have to switch schools one time.
“Those kids walked out of that school building [ in the spring] fully expecting to be back next year,” she said. “It’s really frustrating.”
Diocesan leaders said they regretted the closure of the schools but wanted to act in the best interest of the students. They maintain the students will be served better in schools with larger enrollments.