You could call it the “haves” and the “have-nots.”
In a three-part series this week, staff writer Patti Mengers is examining the challenge of parochial school eduction in Delaware County.
You can read the second part of her three-part series by clicking here.
Today’s installment is about St. Cornelius in the western end of the county, out in Chadds Ford. You could consider them the “haves.”
The area is booming. Lots of people are moving there, especial from locales farther east on Baltimore Pike. Archdiocesan schools in the western end of the county, like St. Cornelius, is thriving. The same can be said for schools in Chester County and western Montgomery County. All you have to do is look at population patterns. That’s where people are moving. In particular young families.
Contrast that with the situation in the inner-rung suburbs. Tonight the faithful will gather in their continuing efforts to save St. Joseph’s School in Collingdale. They must have 200 students committed to attend class there next year by tomorrow.
On Friday, the archdiocese announced two more parochial elementary schools would close. Both were in Montgomery County. And both St. James and Holy Martyers parish schools are victims of the same problem that afflicts so many schools here in Delaware County, declining enrollent couple with spiking costs.
When we started planning this series, we did not time it to coincide with the archdiocese’s announcement.
We also did not time it to appear during Holy Week, kicking off on Palm Sunday.
We did, however, title in “Lessons in Faith.” Those lessons are needed now more than ever.
And nowhere is that lesson tougher, or being felt more, than in eastern Delaware County.
In a three-part series this week, staff writer Patti Mengers is examining the challenge of parochial school eduction in Delaware County.
You can read the second part of her three-part series by clicking here.
Today’s installment is about St. Cornelius in the western end of the county, out in Chadds Ford. You could consider them the “haves.”
The area is booming. Lots of people are moving there, especial from locales farther east on Baltimore Pike. Archdiocesan schools in the western end of the county, like St. Cornelius, is thriving. The same can be said for schools in Chester County and western Montgomery County. All you have to do is look at population patterns. That’s where people are moving. In particular young families.
Contrast that with the situation in the inner-rung suburbs. Tonight the faithful will gather in their continuing efforts to save St. Joseph’s School in Collingdale. They must have 200 students committed to attend class there next year by tomorrow.
On Friday, the archdiocese announced two more parochial elementary schools would close. Both were in Montgomery County. And both St. James and Holy Martyers parish schools are victims of the same problem that afflicts so many schools here in Delaware County, declining enrollent couple with spiking costs.
When we started planning this series, we did not time it to coincide with the archdiocese’s announcement.
We also did not time it to appear during Holy Week, kicking off on Palm Sunday.
We did, however, title in “Lessons in Faith.” Those lessons are needed now more than ever.
And nowhere is that lesson tougher, or being felt more, than in eastern Delaware County.
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