LA Archdiocese closing six Catholic elementary schools
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Six Catholic elementary schools closing
Six Catholic elementary schools in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles are closing due to low enrollment, shifting demographics and financial difficulties, with the coronavirus pandemic likely providing the final nail in their coffins, officials said.
LOS ANGELES - Six Catholic elementary schools in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles are closing due to low enrollment, shifting demographics and financial difficulties, with the coronavirus pandemic likely providing the final nail in their coffins, Archdiocese officials said.
The following schools will be consolidated with other area Catholic schools at the end of the 2020-21 school year:
Six Catholic elementary schools in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles are closing due to low enrollment, shifting demographics and financial difficulties, with the.
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After a difficult year of pandemic-accelerated enrollment losses and hobbled fundraising, six elementary schools in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles will close in June as one of the nation’s largest private educational systems struggles to keep many of its schools afloat.
Assumption in Boyle Heights, Blessed Sacrament in Hollywood, St. Catherine of Siena in Reseda, St. Ferdinand in San Fernando, St. Francis of Assisi in Silver Lake and St. Madeleine in Pomona are scheduled to be closed as part of a consolidation plan announced this week.
The schools largely enrolled children of working-class Latino families in many of the communities hardest hit during the pandemic. Parents have lost jobs and could no longer afford tuition that ranges from about $3,900 to $6,000 annually, leading to enrollment drops. The fiestas, jog-a-thons and bingo nights that boosted finances were canceled. The schools had been struggling for years and the pandemic broke their ability to
(NCR, GSR logo/Toni-Ann Ortiz)
In an unprecedented drop, U.S. Catholic school enrollment decreased by 6.4%, or more than 111,000 students, between fall of 2019 and the beginning of this school year.
The plunge, based on diocesan data published by the National Catholic Education Association (NCEA) in February, is the largest decline since record keeping began in the early 1970s and exceeded the drops that followed 2008 financial crisis and the clergy sex abuse scandal.
The enrollment drop translated to an equally stark number of Catholic school closures; 186 elementary schools and 23 high schools shut their doors permanently in 2020, more than doubling the average number of annual closures in the last five years, the NCEA found.