Educators React To Catholic School Closing Recommendations
By David Madden
ASTON, Pa. (CBS) - KYW Newsradio has learned that four high schools and 44 grade schools are recommended for closure within the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. The four high schools are West Catholic, Saint Hubert's in the northeast, Conwell-Egan in Fairless Hills and Monsignor Bonner-Archbishop Prendergast in Drexel Hill.
READ: Full List Of Recommended Closings
Principals and pastors throughout the Archdiocese were the first to get the report on recommended closures during a 90-minute meeting at Neumann University in Delaware County.
Ironic, perhaps, that a meeting called to discuss school closures is held at a university named after the man who opened the first Catholic schools in America. Moods varied among those coming out.
Salvatore DiNeena is President at Bishop McDevitt High, one of those spared from recommended closure. "I think we're all looking forward. We're looking to the future. I think that's the tone."
Most of those who attended left without comment. The Archdiocese went to great lengths to keep the report under wraps, instructing people to say little, if anything, to reporters gathered outside. Most were somber, given the fact that a quarter of the Archdiocesan schools could shut down, if Archbishop Charles Chaput gives his blessing to the report.
