Roman Catholic Diocese Of Brooklyn To Close More Schools
What's going on in Brooklyn? The same thing which is going on everywhere. Enrollments are declining as the birthrate has slowed. The church's financial resources were hard hit by settling the sex scandal lawsuits of the past decade. Neighborhood demographics have changed, leaving once teeming schools virtually empty. The older buildings are expensive to operate and maintain. The religious who used to teach in Catholic elementary schools have retired and been replaced by lay teachers who expect to be paid.
What alarms me very much is that I suspect that there are many more Catholic and other private schools which will have to cease operations in these tough economic times. More's the pity because this is just when the country needs well-educated graduates to help re-establish the United States as the leader in innovation and invention. What do you think? Leave a comment.
Comments
I actually have a question rather than a comment. My son is currently attending a private Catholic school which is not working out for him. He recently was accepted mid year to a much better (although more expensive) Accelerated Episcopal School, mid year. He will start the new school in three days. What are my obligation to his current school? BTW I have not told them yet
Be careful about breaking your agreement with the old school. Contract law tends to be tough on us parents. They will require you to honor any written agreement as far as I know. That means you could end up paying fees to both schools.
Good luck!
We have been asked by our school to sign a document to commit to sending our child to the school if the Diocese accepts a proposal to increase enrolments.
I also heard a rumor that nearby schools have been instructed to NOT accept enrolments from students from our school at this time.
From what you have said, if we commit and then for whatever reason decide we want to move schools we could find
1. we are not accepted at other catholic schools?
OR
2. we have to pay two lots of fees?
Is there a way to commit without making it contractual? Can we sign “without prejudice”?
We’ve been through these closings over many years her in metro Detroit (the diocese covers 5 counties). I am very worried about how many might have to close next year because the economic problems have hit the Catholic schools in upper middle class areas where parents are engineers,etc… as well as the middle class areas. Many parents are saying that the public schools are just fine and decide to go that route. My daughter is in the 5th grade at a wonderful, but small (185 students) Catholic school in a middle class suburb of Detroit. I will be heartbroken if her school closes. I don’t think these school closings can be avoided based on the parents I am talking to.