http://www.northjersey.com/bergen/Hackensack_Catholic_school_to_close.htmlA Catholic elementary school in Hackensack will close in June because of declining enrollment, the Newark Archdiocese said today.
Holy Trinity School, on Maple Avenue, has experienced about a 24 percent decline in students since 2000 and currently has an enrollment of 183, said Jim Goodness, a spokesman for the archdiocese.
Church officials plan to merge Holy Trinity with St. Francis School, a parish school on South Main Street that also has suffered enrollment loss and is down to about 118 students.
The archdiocese decided that St. Francis School would be the one to stay open because it has received extensive renovations in recent years. The school is under a flight path for Teterboro Airport and received government grants for soundproofing, Goodness said.
“To try and level off the costs of providing education and stabilizing enrollment, which has fallen at both schools, the natural solution is that the parishes should combine their schools into one,” Goodness said, adding that such issues as transportation and staffing were still being worked out.
Holy Trinity is the sixth parish school that the archdiocese plans to close this year and the only one in Bergen County. The other schools are in Hudson, Essex and Union counties.
Goodness said that schools with declining enrollments typically turn to the parish for financial assistance. But with parishes also struggling with changing demographics and increased costs, their ability to support schools is limited.
“It is reaching the point in some parishes where they cannot support the school in the way they might have in the past,” Goodness said.
The pastor at Holy Trinity said the parish was contributing about $150,000 to $200,000 to the school, but the enrollment was still falling. The tuition is about $3,200 a year for parish families.
“The economy hasn’t helped us out much,” said the Most Rev. Charles J. McDonnell. “People can’t afford the tuition.”
A parent at Holy Trinity said he was concerned that his tuition would rise if he sends his third-grader to St. Francis next year but retains his membership at Holy Trinity. Catholic schools typically charge a higher tuition to families outside the parish.
Joe Barreto said he expects his tuition could rise by as much as $175 a month. He’s also worried that Holy Trinity Church will suffer if he and other parishioners join St. Francis to get the lower tuition.
“My fear is that my church is not going to get the funding and donations they need, because families may feel forced out of the parish,” Barreto said.
Goodness, however, said Holy Trinity parishioners should get the lower tuition at the St. Francis School.
“That’s typically the way things work,” he said. “I don’t anticipate a problem.”
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