The worst fears of a lot of Catholic families in Delaware County will come true today.
A lot of their beloved schools will be closed.
Ironically, word from the blue-ribbon commission that has been studying education in the archdiocese for more than a year will be announced on the Feast of the Epiphany, the traditional end of the holiday season.
It will be an epiphany for local Catholics, all right.
The panel is expected to recommend as many as 40 elementary schools be closed, as well as four or five of the 17 archdiocesan high schools.
Already this morning, Fox-29 is reporting that both Monsignor Bonner and Archbishop Prendergast high schools in the Drexel Hill section of Upper Darby are on the list. In addition it appears as if Archbishop Carroll High School in Radnor, which was rumored to also be on the closing list, may be spared.
So far there has been no confirmation on any of the speculation.
School presidents, principals, and pastors will gather at Neumann University in Aston at 10 a.m. to get the word. They will then return to their schools to deliver the dreaded news. The archdiocese will make the recommendations public at a 4 p.m. press conference.
We’ll deliver the breaking news all morning. Stay with DelcoTimes.com for the latest updates.
It promises to be a fateful day for the archdiocese. One thing is certain. Archdiocesan education will be shaken to its core. Officials say it is a necessary step, given the way enrollments have been hemorrhaging in recent years, to save the core.
That will not make today’s cuts any easier to swallow.
As hard as it was to imagine the closing of either Bonner or Prendie, with a merger bringing to an end their long tradition of single-sex education, it is almost unfathomable to think of Drexel Hill with both schools closed.
Keep the faith? That notion will be severely tested today.
A lot of their beloved schools will be closed.
Ironically, word from the blue-ribbon commission that has been studying education in the archdiocese for more than a year will be announced on the Feast of the Epiphany, the traditional end of the holiday season.
It will be an epiphany for local Catholics, all right.
The panel is expected to recommend as many as 40 elementary schools be closed, as well as four or five of the 17 archdiocesan high schools.
Already this morning, Fox-29 is reporting that both Monsignor Bonner and Archbishop Prendergast high schools in the Drexel Hill section of Upper Darby are on the list. In addition it appears as if Archbishop Carroll High School in Radnor, which was rumored to also be on the closing list, may be spared.
So far there has been no confirmation on any of the speculation.
School presidents, principals, and pastors will gather at Neumann University in Aston at 10 a.m. to get the word. They will then return to their schools to deliver the dreaded news. The archdiocese will make the recommendations public at a 4 p.m. press conference.
We’ll deliver the breaking news all morning. Stay with DelcoTimes.com for the latest updates.
It promises to be a fateful day for the archdiocese. One thing is certain. Archdiocesan education will be shaken to its core. Officials say it is a necessary step, given the way enrollments have been hemorrhaging in recent years, to save the core.
That will not make today’s cuts any easier to swallow.
As hard as it was to imagine the closing of either Bonner or Prendie, with a merger bringing to an end their long tradition of single-sex education, it is almost unfathomable to think of Drexel Hill with both schools closed.
Keep the faith? That notion will be severely tested today.
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