BY JACKSON CHEN | St. Gregory the Great Catholic School will be closing at the end of the current academic year following an abrupt announcement from the Archdiocese of New York that included word that another five schools would also be shuttered.
In addition to St. Gregory’s, at 138 West 90th Street, four in the Bronx and one in upstate Liberty will also be closed, according to a February 6 archdiocese statement.
During Sunday Mass at the adjoining church on February 5, Father Lawrence Ford told parishioners of the closing and that regular Masses and sacraments would no longer be held at St. Gregory’s. Several years ago, that church was merged with Holy Name of Jesus Church at 207 West 96th Street, with church services held at both locations since then.
In its February 6 release, the archdiocese explained it could no longer “maintain the operational and financial viability” of the Upper West Side school as well as of St. Ann’s, St. Mary’s, and Visitation schools in the Bronx.
While the Sts. Peter and Paul School in the Bronx will be converted into a universal pre-K school from its K-8 configuration, the others will be shut down.
“We understand these are challenging times for many families, and we will work with all students who are seeking to continue their Catholic education to find a seat at another excellent school in the archdiocese,” said Dr. Timothy McNiff, the system’s superintendent. “These are difficult but necessary decisions, and working together we will ensure our Catholic schools are stronger than ever.”
The roughly 200 students at St. Gregory’s will be allowed to finish their 2016-2017 school year. After that, they will be able to continue their education at the nearby Ascension School at 220 West 108th Street or be guaranteed a seat at any other Catholic school in the area, according to the archdiocese.
Julia Pignataro, the president of the Federation of Catholic Teachers, said her group was blindsided by the news.
“It was really out of the blue basically,” Pignataro told Manhattan Express. “They just sideswiped these six schools because they had absolutely no idea.
The federation president explained that during the previous rounds of school closings, the archdiocese slated certain schools for an “at-risk list.” She said that while the list raised the threat of closure, the schools’ administrators were at least given a last chance to make their schools viable.
Pignataro, who will be making site visits in the next two to three weeks to each of the schools slated for closure, said she found the abrupt nature of the latest announcement discouraging.
“No prior warning was given before today’s notification of the closing of six additional schools,” Pignataro said in a February 6 statement, adding that hundreds of students and 76 full-time and part-time teachers will be without a school. “The archdiocese has not lived up to its word.”
According to the archdiocese’s director of communications, Joseph Zwilling, the archdiocese is obligated to help tenured teachers find positions in other Catholic schools. As for the non-tenured faculty, the archdiocese will also try to secure positions for them, even though it is not required to under its contract with the Federation of Catholic Teachers, Zwilling said.
Pignataro acknowledged that the archdiocese had been good on its word to help non-tenured faculty in the past. But she also noted that there are now fewer schools to shuffle the teachers among.
Zwilling said the archdiocese will meet the parents from all the schools due to close and help them find the next best Catholic school for every kid displaced from St. Gregory’s and the others.
St. Gregory’s principal, Donna Gabella, did not respond to requests for comments regarding her school’s closing.
