Brooklyn Diocese Closing 14 Schools
The NYTimes reports that one of the largest Catholic diocese in the U.S., the one in Brooklyn, is slated to close 14 schools this coming term: January 13, 2009 Brooklyn Diocese Moves to Shut 14 Schools By PAUL VITELLO and WINNIE HU The Diocese of Brooklyn has proposed closing 14 elementary schools at the end of the current academic year, a plan that would mean that one of the nation’s largest Catholic dioceses would have shuttered nearly 40 percent of its grade schools in the past seven years. The proposed closings and mergers, announced on Monday, are the latest retrenchment for a school system that was once a bedrock of neighborhood stability, and a magnet for families of many creeds and homelands seeking safe, reliable education at a relatively modest cost. The news, passed along at midday to principals of schools from Flushing, Queens, to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, shook students, parents and teachers, many of whom had joined in desperate fund-raising efforts in recent months to avoid th...