January 22-23, 2005
New
Regional Catholic Elementary School To Be Established
in
the Bridesburg section of Philadelphia
Reverend Robert T. Feeney, Pastor of All Saints Parish, and Reverend Joseph J. Zingaro, Pastor of Saint John Cantius Parish, announce that Cardinal Justin Rigali, Archbishop of Philadelphia, has accepted the recommendation of the Steering Committee of the two parishes to establish a Regional Catholic Elementary School at the former site of Saint John Cantius School. Both Saint John Cantius Parish and All Saints Parish are located in the Bridesburg section of Philadelphia. If at some time in the future a need exists because of growth in the number of school age children in Bridesburg, consideration will be given to using the site of the former All Saints School. During the implementation period, there will be consultation in the two communities on recommendations for a new school name.
The Steering Committee was made up of the pastors and principal and five lay representatives from each parish. The Committee recommended the restructuring because of dramatically decreasing enrollment and increasing costs. These facts led to a temporary solution for the 2004-2005 school year. As of May 2004, All Saints School had only 71 children registered for the 2004-2005 school year. Realizing that it would not be possible to preserve the educational integrity of the school and manage the financial challenges the parish would face with such a low school enrollment, the students from All Saints School were welcomed into the student body of Saint John Cantius School. Meanwhile, the Steering Committee continued work on the feasibility study.
Background
In January 1999, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua accepted the Cluster 16 Pastoral Plan, which had five goals as a result of cluster pastoral planning. One of those goals was “to provide affordable, quality Catholic education, which meets the changing Cluster needs.” During the Cluster Implementation of its Pastoral Plan, from 1999 to the present, the twelve parishes were subdivided into three geographical sections. One of those sections is Bridesburg.
During these years, the enrollment of the two parish elementary schools in Bridesburg, All Saints and Saint John Cantius, continued to decline and the parish subsidies for the schools continued to grow. In February 2004, All Saints School was projecting an enrollment of 155 children and Saint John Cantius School was projecting an enrollment of 145 children for the 2004-2005 school year. In March 2004, both parishes acknowledged that there was a need to move forward with a feasibility study for the restructuring of their schools.
Feasibility Study
On March 31, 2004, Cardinal Justin Rigali granted permission for the parishes to begin the feasibility study. Each parish appointed five lay representatives to serve on the Steering Committee, along with the pastor and principal.
With the assistance of Archdiocesan offices, the Steering Committee gathered demographic, financial and enrollment information. Also during spring 2004, there were three communiques distributed through parish bulletins. These communiques announced the formation of the Steering Committee and shared information with the parish and school communities concerning demographics, enrollment and baptismal histories and projections as well as the financial history and projections for the 2004-2005 school year.
Recommendation
After the temporary solution of the All Saints School students being welcomed at Saint John Cantius was developed, the Steering Committee spent the summer of 2004 creating the vision for the new Regional Catholic Elementary School in Bridesburg. In October 2004, a combined parish/school meeting was held to present the options and gather feedback.
The Steering Committee met on October 14, 2004 to review the feedback from the consultation process and to prepare the recommendation to Cardinal Rigali that a Regional Catholic Elementary School be established at the former site of Saint John Cantius School. It is understood that, if at some time in the future a need exists because of growth in the number of school age children in Bridesburg, consideration will be given to using the site of the former All Saints School. The recommendation was shared with the parish and school communities in early November 2004.
All Saints Parish Elementary School
Enrollment (Pre-K through eighth)
2000-2001 216
2001-2002 202
2002-2003 190
2003-2004 179
Per pupil cost to educate each student
2000-2001 $1559
2001-2002 $1742
2003-2004 $2502
2004-2005 $2986
Saint John Cantius Parish Elementary School
Enrollment (Pre-K through eighth)
2000-2001 268
2001-2002 245
2002-2003 204
2003-2004 195
Per pupil cost to educate each student
2000-2001 $2326
2001-2002 $2751
2002-2003 $3221
2003-2004 $3031
2004-2005 $3993
2004-2005 Combined Enrollment figures: Saint John Cantius School/All Saints School:312