20 THE QUEENS COURIER • MARCH 15, 2018 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Poor fi nances doom two more Queens Catholic schools
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
rpozarycki@qns.com / @robbpoz
Two Catholic academies serving Queens
are closing their doors for good this June.
Th e Diocese of Brooklyn announced on
March 10 that Our Lady of the Angelus
Catholic Academy in Rego Park and
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Academy
in Queens Village are shutting down as
a result of steep enrollment drops and
“severe budget defi cits.”
According to the diocese, the numbers
simply didn’t add up to keep both academies
Parents of Rego Park Catholic students blindsided by school closure
BY RYAN KELLEY
rkelley@ridgewoodtimes.com
Twitter @R_Kelley6
During the fi rst week of March, the
parents from Our Lady of the Angelus
Catholic Academy in Rego Park received
a notice in the mail to register for the
2018-19 school year, and some sent their
tuition checks in right away.
A week later on March 10, however,
the Diocese of Brooklyn announced
the school would shut down in June.
According to the Diocese, Our Lady of
the Angelus suff ered a 50 percent decline
in enrollment since 2012 resulting in a
$444,299 budget defi cit.
It caught the whole school community,
including the faculty, off -guard, according
to two parents who are disappointed
in the way the situation was handled.
Melissa Martinez, whose daughter is in
kindergarten at Our Lady of the Angelus,
told QNS that some parents now have
to be refunded for next year’s tuition.
Despite the massive fi nancial losses, the
parents had no indication the school was
closing until a March 8 meeting when the
news was broken to them, Martinez said.
“I sort of knew it did not have big cash
fl ow or large enrollment, but there was
never any open communication of imminent
closing,” Martinez said. “We felt
as though this was a decision that had
already been made; there was no dialogue
or wanting any feedback from parents
at all.”
Martinez added that a woman who
spoke up at the meeting said that she
enrolled her child at Our Lady of the
Angelus two weeks prior to the meeting
and was given no indication that the
school was about to close. To Martinez,
this suggested that “it’s not something
that teachers are keeping from us; if anything,
they knew a few days before we
did.”
Parents now have until June to fi gure
out which school to enroll their children
in next year. Even though the Diocese of
Brooklyn is off ering a $500 tuition assistance
grant for parents who re-enroll
their children at another nearby Catholic
academy, Martinez said she is considering
public schools as well.
Martinez is particularly hurt by the
decision because her family has been a
part of the parish for 40 years. She attended
the school from fi rst through eighth
grade herself, and she has cousins who
went to the school and then sent their
children there, too, she said.
“Th is is a school that means a lot to me
and it very much saddens me to see that
there were no opportunities given to us to
save the school,” Martinez said.
Another parent who spoke up at the
March 8 meeting, Kelly Rambharos, said
that most parents in attendance agreed
they would have been willing to pay a
higher tuition if that meant they could
buy more time to fi gure out which schools
to send their kids to next.
As for the schools that the Diocese
is suggesting parents look into now,
Rambharos said she ruled those schools
out when she chose Our Lady of the
Angelus.
Rambharos’ son, also a kindergarten
student, needs an individualized education
program. Th e board of education
recommended that he should not be in
classes with more than 22 students, and
Rambharos worries that she won’t be
able to fi nd a school with such small class
sizes again.
Rambharos added that one of her
son’s special education teachers who was
employed by a teaching agency was pulled
from Our Lady of the Angelus to fi nd
another position by March 12, four days
aft er being notifi ed of the closure.
The Diocese of Brooklyn also
announced on March 10 that Our Lady
of Lourdes Catholic Academy in Queens
Village will close in June. Th at brings
the number of Queens Catholic schools
closing this year to four, along with St.
Pancras School in Glendale and Divine
Wisdom Catholic Academy in Bayside.
Th at’s why Rambharos is keeping all of
her options open, too.
“Th e fact that this school was open for
59 years, I’m worried that this will happen
again,” Rambharos said. “I don’t want to
be in the same situation next year.”
Th e Diocese of Brooklyn sent an
FAQ document in response to a request
for further comment, and it said that
the fi nal decision to close Our Lady of
the Angelus was made “jointly by the
Board of Directors and the Board of
Members, together with the Offi ce of
Catholic Schools, and in consultation
with the principal, Mrs. Ligoria Berkeley-
Cummins.”
going. Th e student population at
Our Lady of the Angelus (98-05 63rd Dr.)
fell from 226 in 2012 to 130 this school
year. Th at resulted in a budget defi cit
exceeding $440,000.
Likewise, at Our Lady of Lourdes (92-
80 220th St.), enrollment fell from 302
in 2012 to 170 students this year, leaving
the school with a $219,000 projected
budget gap. Th e problems at Our Lady
of Lourdes are even deeper, the diocese
noted; there’s $120,000 in unpaid tuition
payments owed by parents, and the
school building is in need of more than
$1.5 million in vital repairs.
Th at brings the total number of Catholic
schools and academies closing in Queens
this June to four. Earlier this year, St.
Pancras School in Glendale announced it
would close in June aft er more than a century
of educating young students. Th e student
population at the start of the 2017-18
school year was just 105, or about half of
the enrollment it had six years ago.
Divine Wisdom Catholic Academy
also announced it was closing its Bayside
campus, operated out of the former St.
Robert Bellarmine parish school, and
moving all of their remaining students to
the Douglaston campus, the former St.
Anastasia School, in September.
Catholic schools across Brooklyn and
Queens have been grappling with falling
enrollment and resulting fi nancial turmoil
for years. Th e Diocese of Brooklyn previously
closed dozens of parish schools in
2005 and 2009, and embarked on a system
wide “Preserving the Vision” reorganization
program designed to keep
Catholic education fi nancially sound for
years to come.
Our Lady of the Angelus and Our Lady
of Lourdes, along with most other Catholic
schools in the diocese, were converted
into Academies, each of which have a
two-tiered governance system: a “board of
members” comprised of clergy and other
staff members which serves as the school’s
spiritual council; and a “board of directors”
comprised of lay people who work
with the school principal to oversee the
day-to-day operations and raises funds for
the academy.
Th e diocese is off ering parents at both
closing academies a one-time, $500 tuition
assistance grant to re-enroll their children
at another Catholic academy near them for
September.
Catholic academies close to Our Lady of
the Angelus include the following:
• Resurrection Ascension Catholic
Academy, 85-25 61st Rd., Rego Park;
• St. Leo Catholic Academy, 104-19 49th
Ave., Corona;
• Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Catholic
Academy, 72-55 Austin St., Forest Hills;
• Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Academy,
70-25 Kessel St., Forest Hills;
• St. Adalbert Catholic Academy, 52-17
83rd St., Elmhurst;
• Our Lady of Hope Catholic Academy,
61-21 71st St., Middle Village; and
• St. Margaret Catholic Academy, 66-10
80th St., Middle Village.
Th e following Catholic schools are
welcoming students from Our Lady of
Lourdes:
• Incarnation Catholic Academy, 89-15
Francis Lewis Blvd., Queens Village;
• Saints Joachim and Anne School, 218-19
105th Ave., Queens Village;
• St. Gregory the Great Catholic Academy,
244-44 87th Ave., Bellerose; and
Our Lady of the Snows Catholic
Academy, 79-33 258th St., Floral Park.
Th e diocese noted that all families at Our
Lady of Lourdes Catholic Academy must
meet all of their fi nancial obligations in
order to register at a neighboring Catholic
academy.
Photo via Google Maps
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Academy in Queens Village
Photo via Google Maps
Our Lady of the Angelus Catholic Academy in Rego Park.
link
link
