Archdiocese: Schools to Form Independent System

Faith in the Future Foundation will manage new Philadelphia Catholic school system.

Continuing a year of restructuring, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced Tuesday it would create a new independently managed Catholic school system for area high schools and special education schools. In a press conference at St. Hubert's High School in Northeast Philadelphia, Archbishop Charles Chaput said the Faith in the Future Foundation—which oversaw the mergings and closings of elementary schools earlier this year—would manage 17 high schools and four special education schools beginning Sept. 1. Chaput said the independent system would focus on major fundraising, enrollment management, marketing and cultivating best practices in leadership and education. "The willingness of lay leaders with a love for Catholic education to step …

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St. Monica School

St. Monica's School: What's Next For Kids?

The school St. Monica was originally supposed to merge with extends an olive branch.

One of the biggest questions looming for many parents and students at St. Monica School in Berwyn is where current students will attend school in the fall. Many had hoped St. Monica students would go to a regional school that would have been created after both St. Monica and St.Patrick in Malvern closed and consolidated. That was the original plan as outlined by the Archdiocesan Blue Ribbon Commission on School Closings on January 6. St. Patrick's appealed the decision and persuaded Archbishop Charles Chaput to keep St. Patrick's open. The ruling leaves St. Monica closed and standing at the altar without a new school partner or the new regional school. It also apparently left some bad feelings, or at least the potential for bad feelings, …

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St. Monica School

Phila. Archbishop Chaput Pulls No Punches

A blunt letter from the leader of Philadelphia's Catholics lays out the case for closing schools, throws down a political gauntlet.

In his weekly pastoral letter to Catholics in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Archbishop Charles Chaput pulls no punches about the closing and/or consolidation of dozens of schools run by the church. The closings hit hard for families and children at Saint Monica School in Berwyn which is recommended for closing at the end of the current school year. The Blue Ribbon Commission report recommends that St. Monica merge with St. Patrick's school in Malvern on the Malvern campus starting in September. The combined school would possibly have a new name, not St. Patrick's. In his letter Chaput says it's normal for people to be upset, and even angry with recommendations. The Archbishop who took office in September, nine months after the …

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Sweeping Changes Ahead for Catholic Schools

The Catholic Archdiocese plans the most comprehensive re-alignment in the Philadelphia church's history, affecting thousands of families in five counties.

St. Monica School in Berwyn is just one piece in a much larger quiltwork of sweeping changes the Archdiocese of Philadelphia will make to save and sustain the shrinking network of Catholic Schools in its five county jurisdiction. The Blue Ribbon Commission, which studied the viability and economies of every school in Archdiocese during 2011, made its recommendation to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to close four high schools and 44 out of 156 elementary schools at the end of the current school year in June. The Blue Ribbon Commission presented its recommendations publicly at the Archdiocesan Pastoral Center in Philadelphia Friday afternoon following an earlier meeting with pastors and school principals to hear their fate at Neumann …

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Report: St. Norbert School Will Remain Open

The Paoli parish's school is not on the list of Archdiocese schools to be closed or merged.

St. Norbert school in Paoli will not be closed or consolidated under a sweeping reorganization of the schools operated by the Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia. According to a list of schools made known to school administrators and published Friday by Philly.com, the school on Route 252 in Paoli will remain as it. The official announcement of what schools will be affected was to be made in a news conference at 4 p.m. Friday afternoon. St. Monica School in Berwyn is to be closed and merged with St. Patrick's school in Malvern, according to the pastor of St. Monica Church.

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