Many already know this, but both OLA and OLPH have been saved.
Our Lady of Angels School, at 337 74th St., will be renamed Holy Angels Academy. It will retain local Catholic control and religious instruction on an independent basis, the bishop said.
To operate Holy Angels Academy, a new school board will be organized with the responsibility of raising funds, said Rachel Connelly, OLA Home School Association president. It is unclear about tuition arrangements.
Remaining as a parochial school under diocese supervision will be Our Lady of Perpetual Help School, at 5902 Sixth Ave.
More information to be found at Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
Also, good coverage on this issue in Brooklyn Paper
And keep an eye on OLA Bay Ridge blog, which has a youtube video from the archdiocese on the larger issue of school closings.
A tip to OLA, OLPH and to the Diocese : you need to do a lot more reaching out via blogs and youtube and the internet in general. This will help you reach out to both the people in the neighborhood, but also to the many people from Bay Ridge who now may live elsewhere, but who would be happy to help, financially or otherwise. I'm no internet wizard, but if I can be of assistance, I'll help.
9 comments:
Brooklyn is not an archdiocese.
It is a diocese.
Noted, and will be corrected
I have to wholeheartedly agree with your suggestion that Catholic schools make greater use of the internet to expand their outreach. Hopefully OLA and OLPH have ducked the proverbial bullet and will stay around for a long time to come.
In case you haven't seen it yet, the Diocese of Brooklyn has made all of the reports and data about the latest round of school reviews available on its website. You can see it all here:
http://www.csptv.org/
"the Diocese of Brooklyn has made all of the reports and data about the latest round of school reviews available on its website"
And those stats explain why the Diocese put some schools on Death Row!
'Hopefully OLA and OLPH have ducked the proverbial bullet and will stay around for a long time to come.'
Frankly, with regard to all or most parochial schools - I think they're just dodging a current bullet.
Tuition doesn't cover actual costs, enrollments are down (as a longtime trend, not a blip), and most of them eventually will end up being merged or becoming non-religious schools.
It would not be a great surprise that enrollment is down. The cost of a parochial school education is incredible. Who can afford it.
Ajlouny said..."The cost of a parochial school education is incredible. Who can afford it."
Yes, +-$4k/year, though it costs the schools more than that ... and they can't give scholarships to everyone, or keep relying on emergency fundraisers and once-in-awhile big donors.
And Catholics no longer feel impelled or required to send kids to Catholic schools. If the parochial school program isn't truly academically excellent, they'll skip it - unless the local public school is total no-bull hell.
Parents might also remember their own experience. I went to 'good' Cath. schools, and in my experience -- the schools excelled at reading-writing basics and discipline. But as I realized later -- they lagged in math and science, put a subjective religious 'spin' on history and events, and tended to steer kids toward Catholic colleges (which wasn't always the best choice).
I just moved to Bay Ridge and am the development director at a Catholic School in lower manhattan. Ive been wondering why the archdiocese (and brooklyn diocese) have not been more involved in reaching out to people via social media as a form of advocacy and expanding the support base. Conversations like this are crucial to understanding how people view Catholic schools and issues facing them.
Interestingly, the archdiocese is revamping its entire strategic plan. Much more to come Im sure.
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