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St. Patrick School of Hubbard to close in fall 2016
By Sarah Lehr
HUBBARD
St. Patrick School on East Water Street will close after this school year.
Bishop George V. Murry accepted a recommendation for closure from the school’s finance council, the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown announced Monday night.
Officials broke the news to parents during an emotional meeting at the school attended by about 50 people.
Teachers reportedly were informed of the closure earlier in the afternoon.
Members of the finance council and the Rev. Michael Swierz, parish pastor, cited economic troubles. Specifically, officials pointed to declining enrollment, an aging and shrinking parish and a reliance on donations.
Several audience members wept during the meeting, which took place in a basement at St. Patrick. Officials fielding often-hostile questions also appeared teary.
“Do not tell me what I feel,” the Rev. Mr. Swierz said. “I know what I feel. I also feel the deep sadness and the abandonment and the pain.”
The K-8 school now enrolls 98 students, down from 167 in 2006, according to the diocese.
St. Patrick School opened in 1870 and most recently became a member of Lumen Christi Catholic Schools.
Volunteers along with one principal, 12 teachers and four support staff run the school, according to a news release. It adds: “Grateful acknowledgment goes to the many religious and lay men and women who have had a part in the Catholic education of so many students over the years.”
Thirty-six parish families enroll their children at St. Patrick School, a member of the finance council said.
People in the audience Monday night expressed anger at the timing of the announcement, saying they would have fought for the school if they had been informed before the closing became official. Some said there was a disconnect between the school and the rest of the parish.
“To sum it up, it was cloak and dagger,” Cindy Williams, a parent of children at the school, said of what she described as poor communication.
Williams, a Brookfield Township resident, noted she is not a parishioner at St. Patrick, but said she had been considering converting to Catholicism.
“Up ’til now, it’s been wonderful,” Williams added, referring to her experience with the school.
The Hubbard Exempted Village School District will reopen its open-enrollment period for former St. Patrick students, St. Patrick officials said.
St. Patrick representatives also said St. Patrick families would be able to receive parishioner tuition rates from other area Catholic schools.
Additionally, recipients of the EdChoice scholarship will be able to transfer those funds for use at other Catholic schools, officials said.
Finance council members said even if families attempted a last-ditch fundraising or recruitment campaign, the school, which is in need of facility repairs, would not be economically sustainable.
The National Catholic Education Association reports Catholic school enrollment reached its peak in the early 1960s with more than 5 million students in about 13,000 schools nationwide. By 1990, there were about 2.5 million students in approximately 8,700 Catholic schools.