From CBS 2
"The Diocese of Rockville Center [sic]will not be closing five grammar schools next fall.
Two of the schools are in Nassau County and three of the schools are in Suffolk County.
Nassau, they are St. Dominic Elementary School in Oyster Bay and St. Edward the Confessor School in Syosset.
In Suffolk, they are St. Isidore School in Riverhead, Our Lady of Mercy Regional School in Cutchogue, and Our Lady Queen of Apostles School in Center Moriches.
The’ve been removed from a watch list, at least for now, according to Diocese spokesman Sean Dolan.
“It’s dependent upon enrollment. It’s dependent upon adequate funding from the parishes and contributions from parishioners and fundraising and stuff,”
What is needed in the DRVC is a couple of small schools setup by lay people and run explicitly to teach the faith. This is a trend in Catholic elementary education and the Diocese has plenty of empty school buildings that the schools could reside.
4 comments:
The trouble is paying for such schools, and I think that's why Catholic schools have become "Catholic lite". To fill the classrooms and keep tuition at all reasonable, they have to appeal not only to the highly devout but also those who want a general values-based education or just want out of the local public school. Then in order not to offend these folks they tone down the religion. In other words, I don't know anything about your diocese, but in general, I don't think the reason Catholic schools are closing is because they aren't Catholic enough; the reason they are closing is because they cost too much to run.
I'd like to invite you to share your blog with those who participate in Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival. We are a group of Catholic bloggers who gather weekly to share our posts with each other. You can see this week's host post at http://rannthisthat.blogspot.com/2013/06/sunday-snippets-catholic-carnival.html
The Mgmt. team for the Diocese of RVC Catholic schools is incompetent in running schools. St. Martin's in Uniondale was about to close with about 100 students, the Marianists took it over -- within a few years they had 425 students.
Since 1990, with Superintendent Sr. Joanne's involvement, 45% of Catholic Grammar schools have closed on Long Island --all with the statement that it is done to help Catholic elementary school survive.
If you take the amount of Catholics over Catholic elementary schools on Long Island, and compare this to all other dioceses in the US, the DRVC is one of the worst performers in the country.
It is one of the best keep secrets in our Diocese. We are the third largest dioceses in the country, one of the most affluent, and can't keep school open. Bergen county, with the highest property taxes in the country has more Catholic elementary schools than us per population. It is two to one.
The fact that they named schools that were in danger publically in 2011, shows you how intelligent they are. Who is going to enroll their child into a school on a watch list?
I do not think it is fair to say the Mgmt. team is incompetant in running schools. St. Martin's was dying due to Uniondale having a very small number of people who could afford to send their children to private school. When the Bishop asked the Marianists (Meribah Province)to take over, the brothers' well deserved reputation of excellence opened the pool of parents willing and able to send their children to Uniondale much wider. The Diocese simply cannot run as many schools as it used to because it is simply too expensive to operate schools and because fewer and fewer people can afford them.
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