On Thursday, July 9, the Archdiocese of New York announced that 20 Catholic schools, including six in the Bronx, would be unable to reopen in September due to lack of finances in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The affected Bronx schools are St. John’s School in Kingsbridge, St. Luke’s School in Motthaven, St. Thomas Aquinas School in West Farms, the Nativity of Our Blessed Lady School in Eastchester, Our Lady of the Assumption School in Pelham Bay, and Sts. Philip & James School in the East Bronx. Meanwhile, three Catholic schools in the State will merge.

The archdiocese confirmed that overall the 20 closures and mergers will impact approximately 2,500 students and 350 staff, and that much deliberation and analysis went into the final determination of which schools would not reopen. It is expected that the actions taken will ensure the overall fiscal stability and long-term viability of New York Catholic schools.

“The coronavirus public health crisis has had a devastating financial impact on Catholic school families and the greater Archdiocese,” a statement from the archdiocese read. “Mass unemployment and continuing health concerns have resulted in families’ inability to pay their current tuition, and a significantly low rate of re-registration for the fall, while months of cancelled public masses and fundraising for scholarships have seen a loss of parish contributions which traditionally help support the schools.”

Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York, said in a written statement that children were always the most innocent victims of any crisis, and that the COVID-19 pandemic was no exception. “Too many have lost parents and grandparents to this insidious virus, and now thousands will not see their beloved school again,” he wrote, adding he was grateful to the various pastors and principals who were all on board in finding schools nearby for the affected children to continue their Catholic education.

He acknowledged the announcement came late, considering schools have been out for a few weeks already, and he regretted the unconventional timing. “We could not have anticipated the effects of the coronavirus, and when it became apparent that some schools were in trouble, our team worked non-stop attempting to increase enrollment, and get some of these wonderful schools off the list so they could reopen in the fall,” the cardinal said, adding that he was pleased that a number of schools originally thought to be in trouble would finally be able to remain open in September.

A review of the websites of the six impacted Bronx schools found no announcements regarding the schools’ closures, and when contacted by Norwood News, no direct responses were provided. TJ McCormack, Director of Communications and Public Relations for the Catholic schools in New York later said that press enquiries would be handled by his office.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Anisha Applewhite, whose younger son was scheduled to enter the 2nd grade in September at St. John’s School in Kingsbridge said parents of the children attending the school were completely confused, shocked and blind-sided by the announcement, which was communicated to them via two letters last week.

The first letter dated July 9 outlined that the school would be closing, offered sympathy to parents and explanations for the reasons why, and a promise to work with them to find alternative arrangements for their children in other Catholic schools.

An extract read, “Let me assure you that your child will be able to continue receiving a quality Catholic education, and we can guarantee a seat for every child at a Catholic school. Directors of Enrollment will be assigned to you to help identify an appropriate school for your child to enroll in for the 2020- 2021 school year”. The letter was signed by Michael J. Deegan, Superintendent of Schools Archdiocese of New York.

Applewhite, who has an older, 20-year-old son who previously attended St. John’s School also, said the school is one of the last standing of Catholic faith in the area and that the closure leaves children in the area displaced. “The other Catholic schools away from the community are already at capacity,” she said in a phone interview with Norwood News, adding that there had been no prior indications from the archdiocese that the school was struggling financially.

“It’s our fear that the Archdiocese has misused the funds given to them by the State to pay off past debt from sexual allegations, and or they have sold St John’s building to a realtor who will capitalize (gentrification),” Applewhite wrote in an earlier email to Norwood News.

The Associated Press published a story on July 10, in which it was alleged that the Catholic Church lobbied for taxpayer funds, and got $1.4 billion, saying, “The U.S. Roman Catholic Church used a special and unprecedented exemption from federal rules to amass at least $1.4 billion in taxpayer-backed coronavirus aid, with many millions going to dioceses that have paid huge settlements or sought bankruptcy protection because of clergy sexual abuse cover-ups.

The church’s haul may have reached — or even exceeded — $3.5 billion, making a global religious institution with more than a billion followers among the biggest winners in the U.S. government’s pandemic relief efforts, an Associated Press analysis of federal data released this week found”.

We put Applewhite’s allegations to the schools’ PR representative, TJ McCormack, who said that no decision has yet been taken with regard to the impacted school buildings or property, and that the top priority has been finding alternative arrangements for the impacted students and teachers. Regarding the allegation of misuse of funds, McCormack referred us to Joseph Zwilling, who is the PR person for the Archdiocese of New York. As of the time of publication, attempts to reach Mr Zwilling have been unsuccessful.

In his statement, the cardinal said that Catholic schools will always be “the little guy” and that the schools “will never enjoy the fiscal muscle enjoyed by government schools which are provided billions of tax dollars”. He called on elected officials in Washington to “do the right thing” in order to avoid any more closures and provide more assistance for Catholic schools under the HEROES Act currently making its way through Congress.

The New York Daily News reported on July 12 that current per-pupil spending in New York is roughly $23,000 per year, and that these 20 New York Catholic schools save taxpayers approximately $80 million per year.

A second letter dated July 10 stated that St. John’s school would not reopen for the 2020-2021 school year, leaving parents to wonder if this meant the announced closure was finally just temporary or permanent.

The letter acknowledged parents’ sorrow at the school’s closure and offered financial assistance to help with the search for a new school on condition that parents would choose a Catholic school. “We hope that we might ease your family’s transition to a new school by extending Transition Aid of $1,000 per student to you if you enroll at a participating Regional Catholic school,” the letter read.

The letter described how the non-refundable adjustment would be applied to families’ Smart tuition billing accounts in four installments during the school year, with the final adjustment applied to the last bill of the 2020-2021 academic year. The letter was signed once again by Deegan.

Applewhite said that the problem with the proposed arrangement was that the nearest schools to St. John’s i.e. St. Margaret’s and St. Gabriel’s were too far away and that taking into account her work location and daily commute, it would require her arranging early morning daycare for her son before school which she would then have to pay for. She is also concerned that as those schools are already filling up, they will be unable to meet social distancing requirements if they take on more students.

For this part, McCormack said that the absorbing Catholic schools would ensure that social distancing requirements would be met, but that this also depended on any changes to State issued guidance which may be received between now and the beginning of the school year.

Meanwhile, the 2018-19 State education department examination results show that Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese of New York outperformed State and City schools in performance growth over each of the past five years, and Catholic school students outpaced State and City public school students in terms of the percentage of students meeting or exceeding proficiency standards in both Mathematics and English Language Arts (ELA).

Additionally, results show that over 99 percent of Catholic high school seniors graduate, and 99 percent of those graduates go on to college or post-secondary education.

In reference to the closing schools, the cardinal said, “Please know that none of the schools that are closing were “failing” schools. Each provided an exceptional academic experience and we owe it to the proud 200-year heritage of Catholic education to carry on”.

Applewhite said St John’s has been the face of Kingsbridge Riverdale for decades and that parents have already begun the process of contesting the closure. “We have created a petition and have already notified all news agencies in hopes they bring the chaos this has caused to light. We will not be silenced or manipulated into believing everything that was stated in the letter. If it means we protest and write letters we will. We are not leaving without a fight,” she said.

A subsequent press release has since been issued by Cardinal Dolan denouncing the July 10 Associated Press story, which he described as a “scurrilous article, heavy on innuendo, about Catholic dioceses, parishes, schools, charitable organizations, and other institutions that rightly received assistance from the federal government to pay their employees during the Covid-19 crisis”.

The statement went on to say, “The purpose was to keep employees employed during these difficult times.  Religious institutions were invited and permitted to participate, as they employ large numbers of people across the country.  Here in the Archdiocese of New York, if you combine the number of fulltime employees in our parishes, schools, agencies, and central administration, there would be 6000 fulltime and 4000 part-time employees.  Without assistance from the PPP, many of our employers would have had no choice but to lay-off their employees, reducing the church’s ability to assist people in need, and forcing our people to seek unemployment.   That means your parish’s secretary, or the teachers in your child’s Catholic school, for instance, could easily have lost their jobs.  So, the money did not go to “the archdiocese” but to our workers”.

The statement also addressed the allegation regarding the alleged use of funds to pay for prior sexual abuse scandals, saying “A second problem is that the article tries to make some sort of connection between the sexual abuse crisis that has haunted the Church, and the Paycheck Protection Plan assistance.  Make no mistake, the money that the Archdiocese of New York received was used solely for the purposes outlined in the law, that is to continue to pay employees their salaries and benefits. Not one penny of that money was used in any way to settle lawsuits or pay victim-survivors of abuse.   We have none of this money left.  It has all be distributed to our workers, and the government is carefully auditing it”.

It also stated that the Catholic Church was not the only religious institution to receive federal funds, saying, “Third, the AP article focuses solely on the Catholic Church, making it seem as if Catholics are unique in participating in the Paycheck Protection Plan.  In fact, religious organizations representing all faiths participated in the program, as it was intended.  Nationally, the Small Business Administration approved over 88,000 loans for religious organizations, supporting more than 1 million jobs.  Why then focus solely on the Catholic Church, unless the reporters had some animus towards the Church (which we suspect they do)?”. The full statement can be read by clicking on the link.

Norwood News has asked the archdiocese if the accounts of the Catholic Church are available to the public. As of the date of publication, we have not received a response. We will update this article if we receive further information in this regard.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.