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BOROUGH PARK SCHOOLS SET CO-SPONSORSHIP
Holy Spirit School in Borough Park, beset with a sharp enrollment decline, creating a severe fiscal strain on the school and the parish, will close its doors in June, it was announced this week.
Holy Spirit parish will enter into a co-sponsorship agreement with two other local parishes, which will assure parents that their children will have “an opportunity to continue their education in a quality Catholic environment,” said Msgr. Michael J. Hardiman, Vicar for Education. The details of the agreement have yet to be finalized.
Father Jerome T. Jecewiz, the pastor, said the student enrollment was expected to drop to about 122 students after 19 eighth-graders graduate, with only two new students having been registered for the Fall. The school began the year with 155 students.
As the pastor was preparing his budget, it was based on 122 students and would require a tuition increase of at least $600 per student, Msgr. Hardiman said. “He felt, however, that to announce such an increase would drive enrollment dramatically lower, leaving the school’s ability to open in September seriously in doubt.” The enrollment of 122 “was already precariously low, not just from a financial point of view but most especially from an educational one,” he added.
Father Jecewiz made these concerns known in a letter he wrote to Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio two weeks ago, saying the school was “unsustainable at this time” and observing that continuing to keep it open “would not be responsible.”
After consulting with his educational advisors and examining the schools enrollment and fiscal condition, the Bishop accepted the pastor’s recommendation.
The Bishop was unwilling to see the school close, Msgr. Hardiman said. “But the co-sponsorship agreement at least assures that a Catholic school presence will continue in the neighborhood.”
Teachers were advised that the Office of Superintendent of Schools would place their names on a priority list for appointment to positions in other parochial schools.
Father Jecewiz met with parents this week to announce the closing. They were told about the two neighboring schools that will welcome Holy Spirit students into their classrooms in the Fall.
The schools---St. Agatha’s and St. Catharine of Alexandria---were scheduling open houses for students and their parents the week of May 24. All are members of the same parish cluster.
If Holy Spirit School were to continue to operate, the student population would be less than half of what it was in l984 when it enrolled 266 students. In the two decades, the parish has seen a drop in the number of registered families, with an expanding number of non-Catholic families settling in the community. Demographic shifts as in Holy Spirit parish are not uncommon in many parts of Brooklyn and Queens.
While disappointed that Holy Spirit School would have to close, Dr. Thomas Chadzutko, the Superintendent of Schools, acknowledged that for students a small class is not an educationally sound learning environment.
According to academic research, youngsters sitting in a classroom with fewer than 21 students experience emotional stress from higher expectations resulting from increased teacher-pupil interaction, he said.
“The social dimension of education for young people would also be impacted by a small class-size,” he said.
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