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Ava Washington will graduate from St. Gabriel School, 2917 Dickinson St., in June and had felt heartache over her likely fate as a member of the Grays Ferry site’s final commencement.
However, the student council president and her 200 schoolmates learned their facility will survive Feb. 16, as Archbishop Charles Chaput sided with a review committee’s decision to maintain the 104-year-old location as a parish school and to discard a plan to merge it with St. Thomas Aquinas School, 1719 Morris St.
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia also paired St. Richard School, 1826 Pollock St., with Holy Spirit School, 1845 Hartranft St., at the former’s location and united Our Lady of Mount Carmel School, 2329 S. Third St., and Sacred Heart of Jesus School, 1329 E. Moyamensing Ave., at Epiphany of Our Lord School, 1248 Jackson St., adjusting the Jan. 6 announcement to combine the five at the former Stella Maris site, 814 Bigler St.
“We just kept having hope,” Ava, a resident of the 1300 block of South Newkirk Street, said Friday as the St. Gabriel community held an outdoor celebration. “I am proud we will stay open because I want the kindergarteners to graduate from here, too.”
Completing a year of studying enrollment, finances and subsidies, the Archdiocese-appointed Blue Ribbon Commission recommended the closing or merging of 45 elementary and four high schools last month. Though public word came Friday, St. Gabriel’s Rev. John Zagarella learned a day earlier that his institution’s Jan. 19 appeal of the commission’s design to send their pupils 1.4 miles away to St. Thomas had met favor.
“We have been given a great gift,” he said shortly before the students streamed from the building with signs declaring their joy.
A history of losing schools, including St. John Neumann High School, 2600 Moore St., now Ss. Neumann-Goretti High School, 1736 S. 10th St., at which he taught and served as president, has left St. Gabriel as Grays Ferry’s lone parochial presence, and Zagarella and Principal Sister Noreen Friel used that and safety concerns to note the necessity of their turf’s existence.
Though St. Gabriel has received parish subsidies for years, it will remain open and become a mission school, which entails receiving support from the Archdiocese, enlisting pastors as members of the board that will run the locale; obtaining outside funds and creating endowments, Superintendent of Schools Mary Rochford said at Friday’s archdiocesan disclosure. St. Thomas also will receive that status.
Zagarella and his personnel made it their mission to revel Friday, as the children readied to see if their instructors’ dancing talent could match theirs.
“We want to thank you for helping us to live the dream,” Sister Santa Theresa said to Zagarella and Friel.
The community had prayed to St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, dubbed “The Little Flower,” for intercession. As believers hold that the saint acknowledges requests by granting petitioners roses, Zagarella and Friel accepted bouquets before accepting a call to perform the Mummers’ strut.
The students dedicated Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family” to the St. Gabriel faculty and staff as impromptu break dancing kept the youngsters, like fifth-grader Tyler McNabb, thrilled.
“I cried so much when I heard we might merge,” the resident of the 2600 block of Catharine Street said. “Now I am excited.”
Zagarella, whose employees had worried about their site’s future for six weeks, felt similarly enlivened.
“We’re just so grateful to God,” he said.
Friday’s dismissal at Marconi’s St. Richard possessed a relaxed vibe, as Principal Marianne Garnham and her 262 charges breathed more easily knowing Chaput had spared them. The first-year head and Rev. William Kaufman offered their appeal Jan. 25, with hefty enrollment and views on sustainability leading their arguments.
“This has been a very delicate situation,” Garnham said.
The commission had proposed to send the youths 1.3 miles away to Stella Maris, which closed in June 2010. The review committee instead elected to have Holy Spirit’s 141-member student body travel 0.6 miles to its closest Catholic neighbor to form a regional school. At 86 percent capacity, St. Richard will be able to accommodate the newcomers, Garnham said, by creating classrooms out of unutilized space.
“With so many children, we had to appeal,” she said of sustaining an identity, albeit a soon-to-be modified one, for the school.
A council consisting of stakeholders will determine the site’s new name by March 25. Choosing school colors, a mascot and other elements will follow. By that date, =the Archdiocese will have chosen the 23 regional locations’ principals, Rochford said. With St. Richard’s impending changes, current employees will lose their positions and will need to reapply. Garnham will be eligible for any open administrative position yet cared Friday more about gaining some solace than pondering her future.
“I am going to have an excellent night’s sleep,” she said.
Parents can have similarly sound evenings if they had feared a school’s closing would mean preparing their children for sacraments elsewhere, as first communion and confirmation will continue to occur at one’s parish, according to the commission’s website. Pastors, pastoral councils and finance committees will guide the use of each closing building, while the restructuring plan will help to maintain affordable tuition rates that will not decrease. St. Richard, along with Epiphany and St. Nicholas of Tolentine, 913 Pierce St., which will merge with Annunciation B.V.M., 1148 Wharton St., will host an open house March 25.
“This entire Blue Ribbon Commission process has led people to approach us with creative ideas, solutions and resources that help us to continue our mission to provide families access to an affordable, quality Catholic education,” Chaput said in a statement. “We have engaged a whole new group of people and reengaged others that will help to make the future of Catholic education a bright one.
Epiphany’s Rev. John Pidgeon is striving to have his parishioners believe the archbishop wholeheartedly. Under Principal Patricia Cody, his school educates 293 pupils, 53 percent of its capacity. Mount Carmel, with 140 students, and Sacred Heart of Jesus, with 191, faced dilemmas because of their compact size and large subsidies. At 1.2 and 1.5 miles, respectively, from Epiphany, the institutions should greatly alter the Lower Moyamensing site’s enrollment, as the Archdiocese has mandated their students attend their partnering school to continue their Catholic education.
“We have to understand it is OK to be angry and to respect different views,” Pidgeon, who led a meeting of the three schools’ brass Friday night, said of mixed feelings expressed about bonding.
The priest and his cohorts are deciding how to proceed in unifying the children even though a name change will bring about novelty to the regional site.
“We cannot really say we won,” he said. “We are losing some of our identity, but good will come from the situation.”
Contact Staff Writer Joseph Myers at jmyers@southphillyreview.com or ext. 124.
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