BY BILL PARRY
For more that 60 years St. Demetrios Pre-paratory
School in Astoria has been a
bastion of learning for the neighborhood’s
Greek-American Orthodox community where
100 percent of its graduates go on to colleges and
universities.
Now the private Christian school is opening its
doors to any students in Queens, Manhattan and
the Bronx, and it has nothing to do with declining
enrollment.
“The decision was made to open our doors to
anyone who wants to receive a faith-based educa-tion,”
a top administration official said. “We get an
awful lot of phone calls from parents who are aware
that our tuition is $200 less per month than at your
average Catholic school so affordability is a very big
component but we are also classical humanities-based
learning. So many schools are now so focused on
technology. We try to make it an interdisciplinary
holistic type of education for a child.”
St. Demetrios Prep is comprised of three sepa-rate
42 MARCH 2019 I LIC COURIER I www.qns.com
schools serving students kindergarten through
12th grade, with the elementary school at 22-30
33rd St., a middle school at 30-03 30th Drive and
a high school at 30-03 30th St. The school offers a
traditional college-preparatory liberal arts curriculum.
“We recently received a grant for close to $20
million from an anonymous benefactor that allows
the school to keep its tuition low for middle-class
families,” the administrator said. “But our class size
is also a factor where we have 15 to 18 students to
one teacher, and most of our faculty has advanced
degrees and teach at colleges particularly in math and
science. Plus, we offer both athletic and academic
merit scholarships.”
St. Demetrios will hold an open house event on
Saturday, March 16, from 12 to 2 p.m. for parents
interested in enrolling their children. The school also
features Welcome Wednesdays where a child can
shadow a student through classes.
For more information visit their website at sdprep.
org.
“For more than 60 years we were a little known
secret here in Astoria for Greek-Americans speaking
the old language,” she said. “Now nothing could be
further from the truth.”
Editor’s note: The school administration of-ficial
requested to have their name withheld for
this interview.
Education
St. Demetrios Prep in Astoria
to welcome students for
the upcoming year
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/www.qns.com
