urbanSTL

Not good for Skinker DeBaliviere.

StLtoday - St. Louis Archdiocese announces closure of two parish grade schools

St. Roch in the Skinker-DeBaliviere neighborhood of St. Louis and Little Flower in Richmond Heights do not have an adequate number of staff or students to operate in the fall, according to a press release.

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/edu ... b9567.html

quincunx wrote:Not good for Skinker DeBaliviere.

StLtoday - St. Louis Archdiocese announces closure of two parish grade schools

St. Roch in the Skinker-DeBaliviere neighborhood of St. Louis and Little Flower in Richmond Heights do not have an adequate number of staff or students to operate in the fall, according to a press release.

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/edu ... b9567.html

That’s a shame regarding both schools. Both well connected to the neighborhood and beautiful architecture on the churchs.

St. Roch parish lost its appeal before the Vatican, very sad.

Ebsy wrote: ↑

May 25, 2024

St. Roch parish lost its appeal before the Vatican, very sad.

The attendence was bound to plumet so low it would start being a charity than a school, yes it's sad, but it's what has to be done

Heard that Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church's school building, which has been vacant since 2017, is slated to become a charter school. Not sure if it's true or 100% for sure happening though.

Looks like they applied for a building permit, description just sayd "Middle School".

South City Catholic Academy, which was a merger of Our Lady of Sorrows and St. Joan of Arc (and sorta St. Mary Magdalene) is closing after this school year. Only lasted 9 years (2017-2026).

20 years ago, these were 3 schools with 500-600 kids and 50-80 employees.

This is at Hampton and Pernod. Wonder how long the building will stay vacant. They spent a lot of money to put in new AC and refurbished the gym. But the building has no elevator, which is probably a major hindrance. On top of that, St. Joan or Arc only has 1 weekend mass anymore. I wonder if there's any shot the Archdiocese considers selling the property down the line.

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That leaves St. Gabriel, St. Raphael, St. Margaret of Scotland, St. Stephen & St. Ambrose catholic schools in the City, as far I can recall. 

Damn shame so many have closed over the last 15 or so years. If you look at parishes like Immaculate Conception Dardenne Prairie, St. Joe of Cottleville & others in the County, they are bursting at the seams 900+ kids. 

Poor planning by the Archdiocese. They needed to come out on the otherside of All Things New with however the new church/school system was to be moving forward. SCCA lasted 9 years but its only been 2 since ATN. Multiple mass time/date changes, especially St. Lucy. From what i've heard, the enrollment at SCCA was actually pretty good for the younger grades, which would make you think it was trending in the right direction, but if there was no intent or effort to keep it open long term, why not close it when ATN rolled out?

The Archdiocese will need to figure out what they want to do before the shaky ground scares more families and students away. They have priests with the talent and enthusiasm to build great communities, they just weren't deployed at St. Lucy. Kinda just seems like we're all waiting for all of south city to consolidate to Gabes. 

There is definitely something fishing/unexplained going on with the finances of the new St. Lucy Parish. A growing school should not be shut down.

Why don't they just sell their Sorrows and Magdalen campuses? I don't understand how consolidating parishes but keeping churches in operation is helping finances. Sell the the other churches and school buildings and use those funds to keep the school operating.  

Miss Shell wrote:Why don't they just sell their Sorrows and Magdalen campuses? I don't understand how consolidating parishes but keeping churches in operation is helping finances. Sell the the other churches and school buildings and use those funds to keep the school operating.  

Magdalen needs to be sold, theres really no justification for keeping it.

Sorrows probably actually makes money. The church is a lot larger and objectively cooler than SJA and SMM and the gym was built in the 2000s. The school building was also just renovated into a charter school that presumably pays rent.

It seems more like they'd sooner sell SJA than Sorrows. But at least 2/3 of the properties need to be sold if they can't find a use for them.

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