School will shut its doors after 141 years
The Archdiocese of New York announced on Jan. 22 it will close St. Jerome School, despite two months of angry and impassioned protests from students, parents and activists, who argued the school is too important to the neighborhood to be closed, and that they were never included in the decision-making process.
St. Jerome is one of 22 Catholic schools the Archdiocese plans to close at the end of the academic year, as part of its plan to restructure what it says is an unsustainable model in tough economic times.
On its website, the Archdiocese said the closure “follows a painstaking, months-long review” that studied “all relevant data, including enrollment, financial, academic and local demographics, to ensure the Board’s and Committee’s decisions would result in financially healthy, sustainable schools.”
The announcement also states that “pastors and principals of the at-risk schools were invited to meet with members of the local Board or Reconfiguration Committee to discuss the combination of factors that led to the decision to list a school as ‘at-risk,’ and offered an opportunity to submit an alternative proposal to remain viable.”
But some hundred protesters who held a futile rally in front of the school on East 138th St. at the corner of Alexander Avenue on Jan. 21, a day prior to the anticipated closing, disagreed with the Archdiocese’s assessment.
“From the beginning of this process there’s been an extreme lack of transparency,” said Kelvin Ramirez, 33, whose five-year-old son attends the school, but argued parents have never been taken seriously in their pleas to the Archdiocese to keep the school from closing. “We value our education but we don’t value the way we’re being treated.”
Students, their parents and advocates chanted “Save our school,” pleading for the Archdiocese to reverse course. In November the Archdiocese told the principal and pastor they had just over a month to devise a detailed plan to raise $1.3 million within three years in order to keep the school open.
At a December rally, the principal, Joseph Puglia, said that would be all but impossible, given economic realities in a low-income neighborhood.
In 2010, the Archdiocese began a restructuring of its schools, appointing boards comprised of residents and clergy to determine which schools to close “to improve the fiscal health” of the Archdiocese, and to “help ensure that all our schools will remain financially stable and, more importantly, open to all students,” according to its superintendent of schools, Dr. Timothy J. McNiff.
But parents and advocates at the rally the day before the closure was announced, said the Archdiocese is singling out schools whose students are black and Latino.
“These children need stability. They need to know their teachers are there every day,” said Juan Pagan of New York Communities for Change, a non-profit, calling the decision to target St. Jerome part of an “extremely discriminatory” policy.
Students held placards and chanted along with the adults.
“I’m comfortable in the school. I’ve been here since first grade,” said 6th-grader Miguel Benitez, who worried about what life will be like if he is transferred to a new school. “Over there, we don’t know anybody.”
Ana Reyes Henriquez, 35, who has two children in the school, urged the other parents to call the Archdiocese “this whole week until they get tired of us.”
Teresa Guzman, 56, whose granddaughter, Reagan, attends kindergarten at St. Jerome, said closing the school would leave the family without other Catholic school options. Guzman’s 33-year-old daughter, a graduate of St. Jerome, moved back to Mott Haven from Parkchester last year so Reagan could receive a Catholic education at her alma mater.
“We hope a miracle happens and St. Jerome stays open another 141 years,” Guzman said, adding her daughter pays $450 per month for Reagan’s regular education and after school program. She said there are no options left locally for a Catholic school education.
In 2011, the Archdiocese closed St. Pius V High School on Willis Avenue and 144th St. after that school had stood for 81 years. St. Jerome opened in 1871.
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