Queen Of Peace High School To Close June 30

BERGEN COUNTY, NJ — Queen of Peace High School will close June 30, the Archdiocese of Newark announced Monday.

The announcement comes after parish and school leaders met and had conversations with representatives from the Archdiocese of Newark throughout the past four months. Officials discussed the possibility of increasing enrollment and financial shortfalls for the 2017-18 school year and in the future — all of which presented growing challenges to the school's "long-term viability," Archdiocese officials said in a press release issued Monday afternoon.

The school faces a $1.2 million shortfall by the end of June — money that can only be partially provided through fundraising. The school will require more than $1.5 million annually in order to keep it running — a figure twice what alumni leaders feel they can raise annually.

“We truly appreciate all of the generosity of the alumni and other supporters of Queen of Peace," said Rev. Michael Donovan, pastor of the Queen of Peace Parish and head of the school. “But given that the school was facing a number of years of continuing deficits and challenges to gaining enrollment, we could not expect that alumni would provide the same robust support every year.”

RELATED: Queen Of Peace Gets A 'Go' For 2016-17 School Year

The school's alumni launched an aggressive campaign last year to raise $1 million to keep the school open for the 2016-17 academic year.

An anonymous donor pledged $500,000 in August 2016 to keep the school open and enrollment saw a slight uptick to 226 students.

Those efforts were enough to stave off closing the 76-year-old school for another year.

Less than a month after it met that goal, the archdiocese announced the 76-year-old school would remain open for what would be its final year.

“Those of us who have been involved in Queen of Peace High School — members of the Board, the staff and faculty, parents, alumni and other supporters, and the Archdiocese — have weathered challenges to find a way to keep this parish high school operating during this current year," Donovan said. "However, even with the generosity of so many, and a slight increase in the number of students this year, we remain in a declining situation that cannot be continued without severely harming Queen of Peace Parish."

School officials will work with parents of Queen of Peace students to help transition students to other schools within the Archdiocese.

Faculty members will be placed on a preferred eligibility list for positions at other Archdiocesan schools.

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