MorrisvilleHoly Trinity to stay open, and others maybe
Posted: Thursday, February 16, 2012 7:00 pm | Updated: 7:50 pm, Thu Feb 16, 2012.
The sound of a bell often signifies the end of the school day, but the ringing of the church bells Thursday morning at Holy Trinity Catholic Church was a sign of victory and a new beginning.
The Rev. John Eckert, the church's pastor, received the news around 11:15 a.m. that Holy Trinity School will not be closing and merging with St. John the Evangelist in Lower Makefield, as recommended in a January blue ribbon commission report released by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
Soon after, the church bells were ringing.
"Now we start to put our year back together, so registration will begin," said Elaine McDowell, principal of the parish school. "We'll be meeting on Tuesday to make our plan and we'll start our registrations at the end of February."
Communities of St. Mark in Bristol and St. Ephrem in Bensalem believe they have won their appeals as well, but their officials were tight lipped Thursday. Conwell-Egan Catholic High School's community also feels confident the school will be remain open.
While the other schools wait to tell the public, McDowell and the Morrisville school are celebrating.
"We are just excited," she said. "We really believe that this is the right thing for the people in this parish and this borough. So this goes beyond just the school. This is for this borough. I want to make it very clear that our work here is the same as the work at every Catholic school. We all had a wake-up call. We believe we have a great program here. And all of the energy of these last weeks, our parents have been patient, supportive. They've done everything they could to support the pastor, myself, the teachers. And now all the energy is going into our program and our plans for next year."
McDowell's phone rang off the hook Thursday. Parents and teachers walked into her office, some with tears of joy, others to give her hugs and flowers.
"Thank you for all your hard work," parents Kim Glasson and Erica McIntyre told her.
McDowell described the joy as being like Christmas morning.
The newspaper was unsuccessful in reaching St. John officials for comment Thursday.
Also, under the commission's recommendation, eight other Bucks County elementary schools and Conwell-Egan in Bristol Township are recommended to close and restructure.
Two elementary schools in the county didn't appeal the recommendation -- St. Bede the Venerable in Northampton and Assumption BVM in Lower Southampton. The rest appealed and were expected to hear the results Thursday.
Officials of the five-county archdiocese are scheduled to publicly announce the final decision on the appeals Friday. The commission's report called for the closure and merger of 44 elementary schools and the complete shutdown of four high schools because of low enrollment and financial hardship. The archdiocese will not release the number of appealing schools.
There's still no word on the fate of Conwell-Egan, the only archdiocese secondary school in Lower Bucks. Officials there could learn their fate Friday or next week, a source said.
That same person told the newspaper that those involved with the process are confident the school's appeal will succeed since it has $3 million secured in the bank. The archdiocese had told school officials in January that $2.7 million was needed to ensure that all projected deficits are covered over the next five years.
The source also said it's a good sign that feeding schools are staying open.
St. Mark School was recommended to close and consolidate with St. Ephrem School. However, that merger might not come through.
On Thursday, the Rev. Dennis Mooney, pastor at St. Mark, would not confirm rumors the school will stay open. However, at the school's dismissal Thursday, parents held a big sign that read, "St. Mark is Here to Stay. Thank you Father Mooney." Parents chanted, "We are St. Mark."
"I heard the great news," Carla Tyrell told his kindergarten son as she embraced him.
"See, all your prayers worked," parent Bridget Shaw told the kids who were helping Michael Mayers, a parent, hold the large sign.
Parents said they knew the appeal had been successful because Mooney had told them the church bells would ring if they were victorious. And sure enough around 11 a.m. the church bells rang. They regularly ring at noon, one parent said. Soon word spread throughout the small town by word of mouth and social media, such as Facebook, they said.
An email from St. Ephrem has been circulated in the community that reads, "Rejoice!!! Our appeal was accepted. There will not be a merger between St. Ephrem and St. Mark schools. St. Ephrem School will continue as a parish school."
The newspaper was unsuccessful in reaching administration officials at St. Ephrem on Thursday.
Also on the chopping block is St. Michael the Archangel in Tullytown and Our Lady of Grace in Penndel. Under the recommendation, both schools would have to close, merge and reopen as a new school.
The newspaper was unsuccessful in reaching school or church administrations of either parish.
In Upper Bucks, St. John the Baptist in Ottsville is also recommended to close, and merge with St. Isidore School in Quakertown and St. Philip Neri in East Greenville in Montgomery County.
St. John the Baptist appealed the recommendation and staff there declined to comment on the response to their appeal. They said the archdiocese will make an announcement Friday.
There are 156 elementary schools in the archdiocese. Had the recommended closings been final, that number would have been reduced to 112 -- 63 single parish schools and 49 new regional schools. There are 17 archdiocese high schools, with four on the recommended closure list. In total, 68,000 students attend archdiocese schools.
Staff writer Christina Kristofic contributed to this story.
14 comments:
I have to say I am glad to hear Holy Trinity will remain open. But I really have say.WAY TO GO LADY BULLDOGS! Another great win. You girls are such a great team. It is a pleasure to watch you play! You are showing what it really is to be a BULLDOG!
THANK GOD!
This is great news for the Ville and all of us who live here. Regardless of what you may think of the church, and I think most of the criticisms are somewhat valid, the school is a valuable community resource, and its loss would have been one more blow to our beleaguered borough. So, score one for Morrisville! Also, great work by the lady bulldogs. Your record is impressive by any standards, and here's one citizen's best wishes for continued success. Finally, I LOLed at the THANK GOD! I guess this is one of this blog's own memes.
A ten-year-old Jewish boy was failing math. His parents tried everything from tutors to hypnosis; but to no avail. Finally, at the insistence of a family friend, they decided to enroll their son in a private Catholic school.
After the first day, the boy's parents were surprised when he walked in after school with a stern, focused and very determined expression on his face. He went straight past them, right to his room and quietly closed the door.
For nearly two hours he toiled away in his room - with math books strewn about his desk and the surrounding floor. He emerged long enough to eat, and after quickly cleaning his plate, went straight back to his room, closed the door and worked feverishly at his studies until bedtime.
This pattern of behavior continued until it was time for the first quarter's report card. The boy walked in with it unopened - laid it on the dinner table and went straight to his room. Cautiously, his mother opened it and, to her amazement, she saw a large red 'A' under the subject of Math.
Overjoyed, she and her husband rushed into their son's room, thrilled at his remarkable progress. "Was it the nuns that did it?" the father asked.
The boy shook his head and said "No."
"Was it the one-to-one tutoring? The peer-mentoring?"
"No."
"The textbooks? The teachers? The curriculum?"
"No", said the son. "On that first day, when I walked in the front door and saw that guy nailed to the plus sign, I KNEW they meant business!"
Thank GOD we have posters who use esoteric words like meme correctly!
For some odd reason, the THANK GOD'S have died down SIGNIFICANTLY since Wednesday Nove. 9th, 2011.
Meme? Esoteric? Is this a blog? I think we need Inigo Montoya here.
"That word, you keep using it. I do not think it means what you think it means."
"the THANK GOD'S have died down SIGNIFICANTLY since Wednesday Nove. 9th"
Perhaps their taxes, trash and/or water-sewer bills are so high they couldn't pay their cable bill.
From today's BCCT. It looks like the Conwell-Egan decision was pushed off again, until next week.
St. John the Evangelist to close, all others to stay open
Posted: Friday, February 17, 2012 11:30 am | Updated: 2:05 pm, Fri Feb 17, 2012.
St. John the Evangelist School in Lower Makefield is the only Bucks County Catholic elementary school that will close in June after appealing. And the Conwell-Egan Catholic High School final decision has been put off until next week, officials said.
St. John will not merge with any other school. Parents will choose from recommended institutions, according to Archdiocese of Philadelphia's blue ribbon commission website, where appeal results were released at 10:30 a.m. Friday.
The website is http://www.faithinthefuture.com/pdf/final-BRC-elementary-decisions.pdf
The other appealing schools will stay as parish schools: St. John the Baptist in Ottsville, St. Michael the Archangel in Tullytown, Our Lady of Grace in Penndel, St. Mark in Bristol, St. Ephrem in Bensalem, and Holy Trinity in Morrisville.
As for Conwell-Egan in Bristol Township, the website stated that "The recommendations regarding the high schools will be delayed approximately one week. The postponement is due to recently received information regarding potential donors that has to be explored before any decision is made."
The other high schools are: Saint Hubert Catholic High School for Girls; Monsignor Bonner and Archbishop Prendergast Catholic High School; and West Philadelphia Catholic High School.
An unconfirmed report from one Conwell-Egan source indicates the school has secured $3 million to assure the school can stay open.
Following are the final decisions posted on the archdiocese website this morning regarding appeals by Bucks County Catholic elementary schools to remain open:
St. John the Baptist: School to stay a parish school.
St. Isidore: Regional school to form with St. Philip at this location.
St. Michael the Archangel: School to stay a parish school.
Our Lady of Grace: School to stay a parish school.
St. Mark, Bristol: School to stay a parish school.
St. Ephrem: School to stay a parish school.
Holy Trinity: School to stay a parish school.
St. John the Evangelist: School to close and parents choose from recommended schools
.....you just keep me hangin on
Posted: Friday, February 17, 2012 7:03 pm
St. John the Evangelist pastor comments on parish school closing By Joan Hellyer Staff Writer Calkins Media, Inc. | 0 comments
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia released the following statement this afternoon from Msgr. Joseph Prior, Pastor of St. John the Evangelist, hours after the church in Lower Makefield learned it has to close its parish school:
"This is a difficult day for everyone here at St. John the Evangelist parish. When I found out that our school was going to close, I was surprised and saddened. All of us had looked forward to being the site for a new regional school next year and being an integral part of the wonderful changes taking place in Catholic education.
"Sadly, the end result of the appeals process led to a different scenario. After I received news that our school would be closing I called a meeting with parents to provide as much information as possible. I'm praying for our school families right now that God may grant them the peace and strength that they need.
"I'm also eternally grateful to our school faculty and staff. I see their dedication each and every day. Catholic school teachers don't make a lot of money. They teach in Catholic schools because they are dedicated to the mission. They're professional educators who are dedicated to their craft and the children here.
"I've spent the day being with the school community and working with pastors in the area to set up open houses for our school families. We're working to assist them as much as possible in the forthcoming transition.
"I'd love nothing more than to keep our school open next year. Unfortunately, given the financial circumstances at the parish and the enrollment figures at the school, we simply could not afford to operate the school or provide the high level of academic programming we want for the children next year.
"My heart goes out to our students, school families, teachers, staff, and volunteers."
Everyone who fought to keep Trinity open now needs to help keep St. John's open too. Our success is their closing.
http://www.change.org/petitions/archdiocese-of-philadelphia-keep-st-john-the-evangelist-school-open
I posted the "thank god" on this thread, and I'm not part of the Old Guard or Old Board. I just felt like for once maybe there was an appropriate story to to post that comment on. Keep up the blogging Jon.
(It was mostly tongue in cheek)
Tongue in cheek humor is always welcome here!
Post a Comment