Possible End of an Era as NYC Catholic Schools Close Their Doors at Alarming Rates
By Amanda Curcio
BROOKLYN- Catholic schools across the boroughs have been closing at rapid rates in recent years leaving many students and families in a panic to find a place of education for their children when their own school suddenly closes down. With Catholic schools once being a backbone of the education system here in NYC, it leaves long-time New Yorkers wondering- what happened?
Between 2019–2020, 26 NYC catholic schools have closed their doors amid the pandemic, leaving thousands of students looking for new schools. These sudden closures have left students, parents, and faculty alike worried and confused about the future of their education, children, and jobs.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, New York was among the top-three big cities with significant enrollment declines in Catholic schools. According to the Associated Press, Los Angeles topped the list at a decline of 12.3%, followed by New York at 11.1%, and right below, Chicago at an 8.2% decline.
The Archdiocese of New York’s schools and communications division declined comment on the matter, possibly emphasizing the trouble the private Catholic education system is truly facing.
While the COVID-19 pandemic can surely be put to blame for the permanent closures of many businesses, losses of jobs, and shutdowns of schools, it can’t take full responsibility for the uptick in Catholic school closures across the city.
Prior to the pandemic, there had already been a notable rise in closures of Catholic schools across NYC.
One notable trend that many have seen withinin the closures is the influx of single-sex Catholic schools closing down. Many single-sex Catholic schools have been struggling harder than co-ed schooling options in order to stay afloat in recent years. Bishop Kearney in Brooklyn permanently closed it’s doors in 2019 due to significant drops in enrollment after more than 50 years of being one of the most popular all-girls catholic schools in the city.
“Catholic education does not come across as appealing to kids anymore, and kids today are given many more choices and their opinions are much more valued now than when I was a child”, stated Jennifer Morabito, 43, alumni of Bishop Kearney High School, “When I was a child, I went to Kearney because my mom went there, and that was the case for most of my classmates as well. When I mentioned the idea of my daughter switching from public elementary school to Catholic middle school, she begged me not to force her to go- and I’m not gonna make her, I’ll let her make her own decisions”. Morabito explained that today children’s opinions and wants are more valued and listened to, allowing for kids to make their own choices about education.
Carol Herron, 62, a former Global Studies teacher at Bishop Kearney High School stated that the administration of the school noticed a steady decline of interest in the “all-girls” aspect that their school had to offer. “For a school that once had a long waitlist of girls eager to be accepted, it was almost as if we foresaw the schools’ fate as years went on and more and more girls began to choose co-ed schools such as, St. Edmunds, and Xaverian”. Herron explained that the separation of boys and girls in school is an “old practice” and does not appeal to students in the present.
Xaverian, as Herron mentioned, was not always a co-ed school, however. It actually was not until recent years that Xaverian Catholic High School made the switch to co-ed education- and the choice to change was for the better.
Xaverian Highschool, located on Shore Road in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, only began accepting girls into their school beginning the 2016 school year. Prior to 2016, the school was strictly all-boys and was rooted in what the students called “the brotherhood of Xaverian”.
Kimberly Cruz, the Director of Admissions at Xaverian High School stated, “prior to making the decision to go co-ed, we weren’t exactly seeing a decline in students, but rather, we were preparing for the likely future of losing students due to only inviting boys into our school”. Cruz also claimed that it had been looked at as a “precautionary measure” for the school as “times are changing”.
Since the change, Xaverian has seen a huge influx of student interest, but it makes many worry for Xaverians former sister school, Fontbonne Hall, an all-girls school located just down the road.
According to sources at Fontbonne Hall, there was a major decline of interest going into the 2016 school year, the year that Xaverian opened it’s doors to girls, and this decline carried out all the way into 2019, leaving Fontbonne Hall’s staff and students worried that they were in danger of closing their doors permanently.
It wasn’t until two all-girls schools closed down, Bishop Kearney High School in Brooklyn and St. John Villa High School in Staten Island closed their doors leaving hundreds of girls unenrolled in school that Fontbonne was given a bit of a “leg up” in the troubles they had been facing with enrollment. Fontbonne Hall was able to make up for many unfilled spots over the years by taking in and enrolling those students.
Since then, Fontbonne has possibly “cracked the code” on keeping up with student interest in the single-sex schools by remodeling Fontbonne Hall into a “women’s empowerment” school, with the new motto, “She can.” Printed boldly in red on the sign outside.
Fontbonne Hall transformed their “standard” Catholic school into a “lab school for girls”, featuring fabrication laboratories, extensive science-research programs in partnerships with Ivy-League schools such as Brown University, and robotics/engineering classes, giving the school a strong focus on the STEM field, which many other schools, Catholic and non-Catholic, do not offer in attempt to make the school unique and more appealing than others.
Hailey Johnson, 14, is a freshman year student at Fontbonne Hall Academy and chose the school specifically for what they had to offer in the scientific field.
“My dream is to become a marine biologist, and when I was looking at highschools, I noticed that Fontbonne had a science research program where I would be able to do research in that field. I originally really didn’t want to go to an all girls school at first, but the programs they offer definitely changed my decision, and I’m happy I made that choice.”
Many parents, students, employees, and alumni can hope that the end of Catholic schools is not soon upon NYC, but while looking at numbers and statistics, it leaves many wondering if the Catholic school education system in the city can be saved.