Clock is ticking on St. Catherine’s closure

The St. Catherine of Sienna School in Franklin Square holds several annual and other events at its Sienna Center. The Diocese of Rockville Centre has not yet stated its plans for the St. Catherine's school building, following the school's planned closure, in June.

Herald file photo

The Diocese of Rockville Centre — which announced plans to close six Long Island Schools, including the St. Catherine of Sienna School in Franklin Square, in December — released a statement in January, in response to local protests to keep schools open, saying that the closures would proceed as planned. The diocese also stated that it had been providing opportunities to help prepare parents and students who will be attending new schools in the fall.

However, only a handful of diocese-sponsored meetings between parents, students and faculty have been held since the closure announcement. Sean Dolan, a spokesman for the diocese, did not return the Herald’s calls for comment by press time, regarding its upcoming plans for parents and children of the closing Catholic schools.

“There is a space for every one of these children in one or more of the 43 Catholic elementary schools, all of whom offer the same quality Catholic education children and parents have found in their school that will close in June of this year,” Dolan said in January, in response to protesters.

“We are grateful for the parents whose love of their children and desire for a Catholic education for those children are so concerned and so desirous for the best for their children,” he continued. “We also are deeply grateful to the principals and teachers, the pastors and the school boards, who have collaborated with the diocese and with one another in this time of transition. We all feel the pain but, especially, we must be attentive to the feelings of the children whose teachers are doing an extraordinary task of personally helping each child through this transition.”

Dolan added that Bishop William Murphy remains committed to his decisions regarding closing six Catholic schools on Long Island, based on the recommendations from the Strategic Planning Committee, whose 18-month analysis of the Catholic elementary schools is a “valid, objective and fundamentally sound expression of how the church will go forward to strengthen Catholic elementary school education across the diocese for the future.”

In closing, Dolan said that Murphy asked for everyone who is committed to the children and Catholic education to unite in prayer and mutual collaboration, so that these “valuable goals can be met in a spirit of mutual trust and Christian love and understanding and we might all belong more deeply to the Lord, and to one another.”

In February, Nassau County Legislator Carrié Solages (D-Elmont) said that he wrote a letter to Murphy, regarding his opposition to the closures — specifically of St. Catherine’s — as well as possibilities for keeping schools open.
Murphy wrote a letter in response, saying that the true cause of the school closures was the failure by state and federal governments to support religious schools.

“[Government has] consistently acted against religiously based schools, on false and faulty premises,” Murphy wrote, adding, “Religious-based schools are a major asset for the good of society. Parents should not be taxed twice as they are now. That, ultimately, is the reasons why unfortunately we have had to close six of our schools, in order to strengthen the 47 that remain."

He closed his letter to Solages by emphasizing parochial schools’ need for state mandate relief. "I would hope that you can reply to my letter, and assure me that you have in the past and will in the future be a vocal supporter in the legislature of full funding of all mandated and CAP services for all of our parochial schools,” he wrote. “In addition, I trust that you are a vocal supporter of tax credits for Catholic and other religious-based schools.”

Solages said he felt that the letter was written with a too-political undertone. “He sounds more like a politician here than I do,” he said.

Solages — who taught at St. Boniface School in Elmont before it closed nearly a decade ago — said that he recently reached out to several local and non-local residents to raise more than $100,000 for an endowment of a Catholic school at the St. Catherine’s site. Additionally, he said, he recently gained support from nearly 50 local families for starting a new local Catholic school, at one of several local vacant properties.

St. Catherine’s, which has served the local community since 1955, currently includes pre-K through 8th grade students.
“[Murphy] has left the public and, especially, the hard-working parents of the children in that school, in the dark,” Solages said. “The Diocese is currently only operating 53 elementary schools in the community, and this is unacceptable for a population of 1.5 million Catholics. The Diocese of Brooklyn has a similar Catholic population and they are able to operate twice as many grammar schools as the Diocese of Rockville Centre.”

He added that local businesses are supported by the school, and will be adversely affected when it closes.
“More importantly, it is critical for Catholic families to continue to have the opportunity to keep their Catholic communities intact by educating their children at Catholic schools,” Solages said.

“I urge the Diocese of Rockville Centre to re-evaluate its decision to close St. Catherine’s,” he continued. “I would like to see the diocese enter into a productive dialogue with community leaders, regarding how to best preserve Catholic education in Nassau County.”