Archdiocese plans to close small Chelsea grade school

CHELSEA -- A 78-year-old Catholic grade school will close in June, the latest in a string of closings of small Catholic schools in Eastern Massachusetts, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston said yesterday.

The archdiocese said enrollment has been falling for some time at the Our Lady of Grace School, which sits on the Chelsea-Everett line.

The school, which has pupils from preschool through eighth grade, had 278 students 10 years ago; today the enrollment is 177, and school officials projected that it could drop to as low as 145 next fall. At the same time, expenses have been rising, according to an archdiocesan spokesman.

There is room for the pupils at other Catholic schools in the area, including one in Chelsea, as well as in Everett, Malden, and Revere, said the spokesman, Terrence C. Donilon. The school's 12 teachers will be placed on a priority list for hiring by other Catholic schools, Donilon said.

"Established in 1929, the school has a rich legacy of service to its parishioners and its neighborhood communities," Donilon said in a statement.

"Every possible effort was made to continue that tradition," he said, "but changing demographics and finances have regrettably and sadly prevented that from happening."

The parish associated with the school has a growing population of Haitian immigrants, and the school has a diverse population that includes children from white, Haitian, and Asian families, Donilon said.

Staff members were told of the closing yesterday, and parents were told at a meeting last night.

As he left the church , one parent, Daniel Viggiani, said the closing was not a complete surprise.

"The financial situation of the Catholic Church in Massachusetts has been pretty well publicized. It's just part of a chain reaction," said Viggiani, whose son attends prekindergarten at the school. "It looks like it's back to public school."

Some of the parents and students leaving the meeting were visibly upset, having just learned of the closing.

"I just wish there was something we could do," said a tearful woman who identified herself only as Laura, the mother of two children at the school.

Most parents praised the school 's faculty and staff, and said they will look for other area Catholic schools with openings for their children.

Representatives from the archdiocese at the meeting handed out lists of such schools, and although parents were told their children would get first chance at the openings, they did not seem hopeful.

"Am I going to have to put my son in a different Catholic school after the next two years?" asked Dean, a father who attended the meeting.

Donilon said about 70 parents and teachers attended last night's two-hour meeting, and most were not pleased with the decision. "They were upset, and understandably so. Those parents . . . care a lot about Catholic education. We had some good discussion, and they had some very good comments."

Susan, whose third-grade niece attends the school, was saddened by the closing and said the closure will scatter a close-knit community. "My husband cooked for the spaghetti suppers. We're going to have movie night on Friday," she said. "We had a lot of good questions, but they didn't have any good answers."

Archdiocesan officials have been authorizing the closing of several parish schools a year in response to dwindling enrollment, particularly in older cities. Catholic schools in the archdiocese now educate about 49,000 students, down from 153,000 in 1965.

Catholic schools have traditionally encouraged the faith among the young and helped boost the academic and professional prospects of poor children who otherwise would go to struggling public schools.

The archdiocese has acknowledged ignoring many of the findings of a strategic plan in the early 1990s for its schools.

In October 2005, Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley appointed businessman Jack Connors Jr. , a prominent critic of archdiocesan leadership during the clergy sex abuse scandal, to lead a panel to examine the future of Catholic education in Greater Boston. O'Malley has pledged to take the panel's recommendations seriously.

O'Malley and Connors have said that more schools will probably need to close, that school fund-raising will need to increase dramatically, and that schools will need to share resources and knowledge.

Paulson can be reached at mpaulson@globe.com.