Faced with under-enrollment and declining funds from tuition, Harlem’s St. Joseph of the Holy Family School may shut its doors at the end of the school year.
In a report issued last week by the Archdiocese of New York, its Reconfiguration Committee placed St. Joseph’s—located at Morningside Avenue and 126th Street—on an “at-risk” list and made preliminary recommendations for the Archdiocese to stop funding.
“They simply don’t have enough tuition to fund a robust school program,” said Fran Davies, associate superintendent for communications and marketing for the Archdiocese, adding that the schools on the “at-risk” list have needed significant subsidies from the Archdiocese to meet their operating expenses.
Although St. Joseph’s capacity is 240 students, only 104 students are enrolled for the 2010-2011 academic year, Davies said.
The Archdiocese, in an effort to identify schools that are financially unsustainable, designated 31 out of 185 parish and elementary schools as “at risk.” Once a school is on the list, officials will meet with the committee, and the school will have an opportunity to present a proposal for its long-term viability. Final decisions will be made in January of 2011.
Angelique Crawley, the mother of a pre-kindergartner, said the announcement came as somewhat of a shock. “I was pretty surprised because he just started this year,” she said. “It was pretty short notice, too.”
Other parents, though, said they had seen it coming.
“I was disappointed,” said Victor Hayes, father of a second grader and kindergartner and a parishioner at St. Joseph’s. “But I had also seen some of the decline in the school in enrollment,” he said, adding that he thinks the economy and the rise of charter schools in Harlem are playing a role. Parents, he said, cannot afford private school tuition and can find quality educations in charter schools without the expense.
Dorothy Satchell, the grandmother of a third grader, added, “I knew eventually it would close because attendance was so low. ... How can you pay the teachers if they have no students?”
And parents said they’ve seen the impact of funding troubles firsthand.
“I was happy until they put the fifth and sixth grades together,” said Keith Alexander, the father of a sixth grader. Alexander said the school combined grades this year, a result of declining enrollment.
He said he had considered enrolling his daughter in a charter school but thought St. Joseph’s was a better option. Now, he is rethinking his decision.
“My child is not going to get to graduate with the people she went to school with,” he said. “If I had known that, I would have put her somewhere else.”
Satchell also saw a deterioration in her grandson’s schooling because of the combined third and fourth grade classes.
“You’re paying the same tuition, but you’ve got two classes, and the teacher can’t give your child what he needs,” she said.
Though the school will remain open through the end of the academic year, parents say they are now looking for other options, both within the parochial school system and elsewhere. According to Davies, should St. Joseph’s eventually close, every student would be promised a spot at another nearby Catholic school.
Still, for some parents, the closure seems inevitable.
“No matter what they say, they will take the money away, and the school will close in June,” Satchell said. “What else can they do?”
Principal Agnes Sayaman declined to comment, deferring to the Archdiocese.
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