I just got a call from a family member who attended mass at Our Mother of Sorrows Church in Greece tonight - it was announced that this is the last year for the 7th and 8th grades. Beginning in September of this year, the school will be K-6 only. None of us are surprised by this, the parents are already heating up the phone lines tonight. When it was annouced they were "looking into whether to keep them open or not", we knew that the decision had already been made, and it would be announced in the coming few months, and sure enough we were correct.
My husband and I have done our best and stuck out paying tuition and keeping our children in catholic grammar schools (despite our school, st charles borromeo closing which just devastated my children). I am thankful my daugher, now a 5th grader at MOS has just one more year, 6th grade in september, and she is done and we are done with diocesan schools, as she is our youngest.) I HAVE HAD IT WITH THIS BISHOP AND HIS DISDAIN FOR OUR CHILDREN AND OUR SCHOOLS.
When will the officials of the diocese learn anything about keeping schools and parishes open? As we pointed out a while back, the diocese devotes more money from the CMA to the actual CMA program than it does Catholic Schools. What kind of backwards plan is this?
It's simple, friends. Cut the liberal garbage, fund the schools, get vocations, save the parishes. Pray that Our Lady of Wisdom may soften the hearts of the administration of the Diocese of Rochester.
6 comments:
Archangel School is always an option!
Is there any way to start a Catholic school that is just 7th and 8th grades? Right now, Siena seems to be the only school in the diocesan system which still has them... (Not that this only-junior-high-school would even be diocesan).
Siena is a great school. The free standing middle school model attracts teachers who want to teach middle school (12 and 13 yr old kids) and are trained to do so.
This school has 290 students, 15 homerooms, religion every day, First Friday mass, stations of cross in Lent, prayer before each class.
The tuition for next year is 3250. That's 2000 less than the High School related Middle schools.
Grandma of Siena Students
Siena definitely has a nod of the miter from me.
I've heard only wonderful things about Siena, and I know that when we've played against them in CYO basketball, their players are lovely people who demonstrate good sportsmanship. Unfortunately, the school is not conveniently located for everyone in Rochester. If you are more than 15 miles away, you can't get the bus.
If the diocese cared at all about Catholic education, they would have been more supportive of the junior high at Mother of Sorrows. They would have helped build it up by encouraging the west side K-6 schools to send their kids to 7 & 8 there. (More students would have allowed for more programs, activities, etc. Win-win for everyone.)
~A Disappointed Catholic
Just a fact correction. Next year's tuition at Bishop Kearney's High School related junior high will be $3200, not more than Sienna's.
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