5 Queens Schools To Close,
3 Merge Under Diocese Plan

By Linda Wilson

A plan proposed by the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens, under which diocesan officials are meeting and consulting with parents and school administrators, would see five elementary schools in Queens closed at the end of the 2008-09 academic year. Two other schools would merge with a third, existing school.

Slated for closing under the plan are: St. Anthony of Padua School 125-18 Rockaway Blvd.. South Ozone Park; St. Benedict Joseph Labre School, 94-25 117th St., South Richmond Hill; St. Catherine of Siena School, 118-34 Riverton St., Saint Albans; St. Aloysius School. 360 Seneca Ave., Ridgewood, and Blessed Sacrament, 34-20 94th St., Jackson Heights.  In Flushing, St. Michael School, 36-58 41st Ave., and St. Ann School, 142-45 58th Rd., would merge with St. Mary’s Nativity School to form one school with one campus at the St. Mary’s Nativity site, 146-28 Jasmine Ave.

Some schools are proposed to adopt academy status, with a Board of Directors composed of lay leaders with specific competence responsible for their fiscal oversight and governance and pastors of parishes aligned with an academy with particular responsibility for the spiritual care of faculty, students and families. Mary, Gate of Heaven School, 101-20 105th St., Ozone Park has been invited to adopt academy status prior to the 2009-2010 academic year. The DRC also proposed that three schools close, and then reopen at their same sites as academies prior to the opening of the 2009-10 academic year: Our Lady of Grace, 100-05 159th Ave., Howard Beach, St. Anastasia 45-11 245th St., Flushing and Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, 62-01 61st St., Ridgewood.

The plan, known as “Preserving the Vision”, was initiated by the Diocesan Reconfiguration Committee (DRC) in the beginning of September. It has involved the unprecedented collaboration and input of parents, teachers, principals, parish and community leaders, pastors and Diocesan employees, according to a statement from the Diocese.

Nearly every school slated to close has showed precipitous declines in enrollment. Enrollment declines led to the Diocese closing 25 schools in Queens and Brooklyn in 2005. Seven more schools were closed in the course of the following two years. Nearly one-third of all Queens and Brooklyn schools in the Diocese  will have closed since 2004 as the ultimate result of the DRC plan. In all, the DRC submitted 29 regional proposals to ensure the long-term vitality and strength of Catholic schools in the Diocese of Brooklyn.