Closing the door on 2 more parochial schools

It’s the same sad song being sung at the funeral Mass for two more parochial schools in the archdiocese.

Declining enrollment, increasing costs.

It’s what led to the very unpopular decision a few years back to close St. James High School in Chester.

It’s what led to one parochial elementary school after another in eastern Delaware County to close its doors. St. George in Sharon Hill.
St. Charles Borromeo in Drexel Hill. Our Lady of Peace in Milmont Park.

Now the ax has fallen on two high schools in Philadelphia. This one came as a thunderbolt, in part because of the names involved.

The archdiocese announced yesterday that both Cardinal Dougherty and Northeast Catholic high schools will close their doors after the current school year.

At one point, Dougherty, which opened its doors in 1956, was the biggest Catholic high school in the country, with more than 6,000 students. This year there are 642 students enrolled.

Northeast Catholic was built for 1,700 students. Its peak enrollment was in 1953, when 4,410 students went through the doors each day. This year’s enrollment is 551 students.

No one is going to like the archdiocese’s decision. But it’s hard to argue with it. They are now focusing their education efforts on where the students are, which is not in the inner-ring suburbs, nor in the city.

Still, that’s a lot of history and tradition to simply close the door on.

But the archciocese does not have much of a choice.

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