Long Beach Catholic School Survives Closures

Long Beach Regional Catholic School will be spared the prospect of closing after the Diocese of Rockville Centre announced Tuesday that it will shut down six of Long Island’s 53 elementary schools at the end of the 2011-2012 school year.

According to the Diocese of RVC website, the six schools that will close are:

• St. John Baptist de La Salle Regional School (Farmingdale)
• St. Catherine of Sienna School (Franklin Square)
• St. Ignatius Loyola School (Hicksville)
• Sacred Heart School (North Merrick)
• Our Lady of Perpetual Help School (Lindenhurst)
• Prince of Peace Regional School (Sayville)

"Given the decline in school-age population and the economic climate on Long Island we, like many public school districts, must face the harsh reality that we no longer need as many school buildings as we may have had in the past," said Diocese of Rockville Centre Bishop William Murphy.

Along with the above-mentioned schools, Murphy said he has asked five schools, three in Suffolk County and two in Nassau County, to form a "strategic collaboration." It wasn't clear what that collaboration would include.  

The other 42 schools will remain open next year, including Long Beach Catholic Regional School, a the tri-parish school with about 480 students, from pre-kindergarten to eighth grade, which opened in 1954.

LBRCS Principal Veronica Danca, in a Dec. 6 letter informing parents of the six schools that will close next June, which is posted on the school’s website,  writes: “I am pleased to report that our school will remain open and will be a critical component of Catholic education on Long Island as we move forward … As we move forward, we will continue to offer quality Catholic education that meets the needs of the students in our care.”

The decision to close the six schools was arrived at for various reasons, including what Murphy described as "changing demographics and difficult national and local economic conditions."

Murphy also said that his Bishop’s Advisory Committee on Catholic Education completed a thorough evaluation of each of the elementary schools on Long Island. The evaluation took into account enrollment and school age demographic trends, the financial position of schools and parishes, and a review of the facilities, technology and programs offered.