Catholic school closing due to low enrollment (Diocese of Albany)

After more than 70 years, Saint Mary's School in Rensselaer no longer has enough students to stay open. Only 91 students registered for the 2004-2005 school year.

Sister Mary Jane Herb said, "If one or two of the classes were low, we'd probably make the decision to continue the school. But with all but one of the classes under 10 students, it makes it academically not a good learning environment."

Sister Herb said those 91 registered students, along with 15 faculty members from Saint Mary's, now have to look for somewhere else to go next year.

"Many people were shocked at the decision and very, very surprised. Parents are expressing some understanding with regard to the low enrollment and the financial challenges that are being faced," said Sister Herb.

Margaret Zukowski's daughter is a former student of Saint Mary's. Zukowski still keeps in contact with some other parents and teachers at the school.

Cohoes Catholic School, along with St. Anthony's and St. Paul's schools in Schenectady -- all run by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany -- have also decided to close. And while there is ongoing controversy over accusations of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, Sister Herb said the closings have nothing to do with it.

She said, "Absolutely not, we've done a number of exit surveys and that has never come up."

Sister Herb said the diocese will be working closely with students and faculty to try and place them in other Catholic schools throughout the area.

"If one or two of the classes were low, we'd probably make the decision to continue the school. But with all but one of the classes under 10 students, it makes it academically not a good learning environment."

For thirty years they have been saying that the lower the student to teacher ratio is, the better. Since when did small classes become "not a good learning environment?" I do not know why they are closing, possibly not enough money.... but this is just an excuse.

From their own web page: "Small classroom size conductive to greater individual attention."

There is only so much money in any diocese. When the bishop finds it necessary to retain a firm to whitewash his indiscretions to the turn of $770.00 an hour it may just be that the money flow has been diverted from education to really important things,like protecting the bishop's backside.

Just as likely is the fact that catholicism in Albany is like an ice cube in hell,gone,and the pew sleepers are waking up to it.

We are building Catholic schools in Texas: two high schools in Dallas, and an expansion of five Catholic elementary schools in the DFW area

In deference to the situation here, I will point out that certain catholic schools in the Albany Diocese are bursting at the seam. The one my daughter attended has gone through 2 expansions and still must turn students away.

Katnip - I was still living on LI when the Rockville Centre diocese went through the process of consolidating schools, closing many of them. In fact, the catholic school my daughter attended for Kindergarten (13 years ago), sent home notices to the parents advising us of a meeting to discuss the regionalization of 3 schools into one - St. Hugh of Lincoln in Huntington Station, St. Anthony in Greenlawn and another one in Northport. St. Anthony's was selected as the one facility and its name was changed (at my recommendation) to Trinity Regional School. St. Hugh was retained for the pre-school and Kindergarten programs. The Albany Diocese is a bit late to this agenda.

Here's another one closing -- a little farm community outside Portland, OR.

Catholic school in Roy slated for closure
05/20/2004 Jon Reddy
ROY — A 96-year-old Catholic school tradition and its 53-year-old building here will hold its final classes in June.

St. Francis of Assisi School will shut down after more than nine decades of Catholic education.

The school, which began in the basement of the then St. Ferdinand Parish in 1908, will close due to lack of enrollment and financial concerns, the usual “deadly combo” for the closing of a school, said Bob Mizia, superintendent of Catholic schools for the Archdiocese of Portland.

“Next year would only have 54 students enrolled at St. Francis,” says Mizia. “That’s simply not enough to support the school.”

Students at the school are being encouraged to enroll at Visitation School in Verboort or St. Matthew School in Hillsboro, Mizia says.

A letter from pastor Father Michael Hemming was recently sent out to parishioners announcing the school’s closure.

In the letter, Father Hemming said that despite an effort to extend pre-enrollment for the coming school year, the enrollment numbers were still too low to maintain “a viable and healthy” school.

“Even with double-graded classes, our class sizes would vary between 16 students (first- and second-grade) and eight students (fifth- and sixth-grade),” wrote Father Hemming. “We would most likely have to cancel the hot lunch program, music and PE, computers, and not rehire our teacher’s aide.” Deficit spending for the coming school year would have been between $90,000 and $102,000.

The enrollment has declined for the past six years, Father Hemming wrote.

The present school was constructed and dedicated in 1951. As recently as 1998, the school was still expanding; it added a new two-classroom modular building donated by its former pastor, Father Stephen Breitenstein. In the summer of 2000, the school completed a remodeling of its restroom facilities and installed new windows.

The Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon staffed the school from 1912 until 1999. The first school building opened in September 1912. The name of the parish, along with the school, changed to St. Francis of Assisi in 1921.

I haven't been here that long and didn't know about the school closings. I do know that the St. Anthonys in Oceanside had a school there at one time but it's been closed for about 30 years now. The building is well used by the parish still.

All the Catholic schools that I knew of in Queens where I grew up are still there as far as I know, except maybe Dominican in Jamaica.

I've thought that the closings we hear of are due to lack of nuns to run them or as in recent times, to pay for bishops indiscretions.

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