Sacred Heart School teachers out of work –– and pay

Already displeased with the Diocese of Rockville Centre’s decision last December to close the K-8 Sacred Heart School in North Merrick at the end of the school year, Sacred Heart parents have now become vocal about the diocese’s decision not to offer severance pay to faculty members who are losing their jobs.

The decision has caused such a stir among parents that, in a coordinated effort, they flooded the phone lines of Bishop William Murphy, Sister Joanne Callahan, the diocese’s superintendent of schools, and diocese Communications Director Sean Dolan on May 23 to voice their complaints.

Including Sacred Heart, six Catholic schools in Nassau and Suffolk counties are scheduled to close in June — St. John Baptist de La Salle Regional School in Farmingdale, St. Catherine of Sienna School in Franklin Square, St. Ignatius Loyola School in Hicksville, Prince of Peace Regional School in Sayville and Our Lady of Perpetual Hope in Lindenhurst. According to diocese policy, no faculty members at any of the schools will receive severance pay.

The diocese “refuses to pay for anything,” said Shane Pallotta, who has two daughters at Sacred Heart. The diocese has $132 million “in cash reserves sitting around doing nothing,” Pallotta said. “If you're kicking them out, give them something.”

Pallotta added that a diocese official told him that Murphy’s office received more than 400 calls from angry parents before 1 p.m. on May 23.

Sacred Heart has 18 teachers, four teacher’s assistants, one secretary and a principal, Kerry Kahn. The 24 faculty members will continue to be paid through the end of August, which is when their contract with the diocese will expire, Dolan said. Until then they will maintain their benefits through their insurance policies, and can collect money for accrued sick days. They will also be able to file for unemployment if they haven’t found a new job by September, and can purchase medical benefits through COBRA, the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985, according to Dolan. “We haven't offered severance pay for teachers in the past for schools that have closed,” he said, “so it is consistent with what the diocese has done historically.”