NEW ROCHELLE, NY — After weeks of heated wrangling over the proposed move of the Alternative High School from St. Gabes School to the Family Life Center at Bethesda Baptist Church, Cardinal Timothy Dolan created a new option Thursday when he shared “the sad news that 20 of our beloved Catholic schools will not be reopening this September due to a substantial decline in enrollment in many of our schools brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic”.
On the list of school closings was Holy Family School in New Rochelle.
New Rochelle school officials wasted no time reaching out to the Archdiocese. Superintendent Dr. Laura Feijóo, Facilities Director Carl Thurnau, Board President Rachel Relkin and Board Vice President William Ianuzzi toured the school on Friday.
Holy Family School ticks many of the boxes offered to justify the move to Bethesda and exceeds Bethesda as a location in many ways.
Much was made of “proximity,” how the “short” 24-minute walk between Bethesda and the high school and aligning Campus School bell schedules with New Rochelle High School, would allow Campus students to take Advanced Placement courses.
Holy Family School is less than 2 blocks from New Rochelle High School, a distance of 4/10ths of a mile than can be walked in 7 minutes, less than one-third the time and distance from Bethesda.
Holy Family School has a gymnasium so Physical Education requirements can be met without reliance on teaching classes on sports ethics or yoga.
The building itself is in good condition and was approved by the state as a public school in September 2015 after the City School District of New Rochelle spent $3 million to upgrade the Holy Family School as a temporary home of Daniel Webster Elementary School after a ceiling collapse closed Webster for 5 months.
The Holy Family School was “approved” by the New York State Education Department in 2015 under the leadership of then-NYSED Facilities Director Carl Thurnau who worked closely with New Rochelle school officials, Buildings & Grounds staff and outside contractors to overhaul the building in a matter of weeks. The sorts of Security and ADA issues given as reasons for moving out of St. Gabes School do not exist at Holy Family School.
Webster School moved out of Holy Family and returned to the Webster school building by January 2016. Two years later the Archdiocese closed the Holy Name School in the East End of New Rochelle and re-opened Holy Family School which had been closed for more than a decade.
The old Holy Family School closed in 2005. The school was renovated by the City School District of New Rochelle after a ceiling collapse at the Webster School in the summer 2015. The District spent millions of dollars to relocate Webster School to Holy Family for four months including large sums to make the building compliant with New York State Education Department building codes.
Iona College has taken space at Holy Family School for its Iona Speech, Language and Hearing Clinic but there is still adequate space in the building to house the Campus School.
It would not be the first time Alternative High School students shared space with Iona College students. Between 1983 and 1985, the two groups of students shared the Mayflower School less than a block away from Holy Family School. In 1985, Iona College bought the Mayflower School; the Alternative High School students then moved to Barnard School for 7 years before relocating to their current home at St. Gabes in 1992.
Parking should not be an issue. In 2015, the City of New Rochelle created “W” parking permits in the area around Holy Family School, along Mayflower Avenue, for Webster School employees.
Traffic should not be an issue. Unlike Bethesda, situated directly on a primary road with heavy traffic, Holy Family School is in a quiet residential neighborhood.
The only real question is whether the City School District of New Rochelle can reach a lease agreement with the Archdiocese.
Leasing schools suddenly became a buyer’s market this week. Also closed was Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Pelham — and Dolan warned of the possibility of more parochial school closings.
“Many families, having already experienced their own loss of income, felt unable to plan ahead and re-register their students for the 2020-2021 school year,” said Dolan. “Add to that months of unopened churches and the resulting loss of parish funds which traditionally help support the schools, and it became clear that these schools, despite heroic efforts to save them, would not be able to reopen this September.”
“We may be back here again in a few months shuttering even more of our schools,” warned Dolan.