Woodside School To Close

After a valiant struggle to keep its doors open, Blessed Virgin Mary, Help of Christians School (BVM, a.k.a., St. Mary’s) in Woodside received the bad news last week from the Brooklyn Diocese that its business proposal had not been approved and the school would close, as announced, in June.
“With a stroke of a pen for the second time in 71 days, the ‘protector of education’ [Monsignor Michael Hardiman, Vicar for Education] has decided that hundreds of children, educated daily for most of their lives in the words and teachings of Christ, are just plain out of luck,” said Elizabeth Gleason, who sits on the Home School Executive Board.
With the rejection of the proposal, 147 students have been displaced and must look for a new educational “home.”
But, according to Gleason, the remaining schools may not be able to accommodate students from the institutions set to close, despite the assurance from the diocese that every displaced child would have a seat in an affiliated school.
“Factually, there are over 400 faithful Catholic elementary students in our combined communities with no school to go to,” said Gleason. “There’s already no room for the public school kids who usually join our elementary institutions in the sixth and seventh grades.”
And with the doors of BVM set to close, teachers and administrators will be displaced as well.
“I would imagine our teachers will be going on job interviews,” said BVM Principal Mary Basile.
Diocesean officials rejected the proposal based on low enrollment numbers and proposed assistance from the school’s parish.
But BVM administrators, upset by Hardiman’s decision, said they have a guarantee from the majority of students who registered at affiliated or other schools to return to BVM. In fact, according to Gleason, the school holds a waiting list of more than 60 new students and is in contact with several parents at neighboring schools that are closing.
And as far as parish help is concerned, Gleason claims that the business plan did not take into account any finances from the parish.
In a statement to the Diocese, Geri Kraft wrote, “You have torn the heart right out of Woodside. You have disrupted everyone’s life, especially the childrens’. You have taken away everything we believed in…”
BVM will join two other area schools – Holy Cross in Maspeth and St. Teresa’s in Woodside – in closing.
St. Stanislaus School in Ozone Park, on the other hand, has received word that its business plan was accepted. They now have 30 days to implement it, meaning that by the end of May they must increase enrollment.
toni@queenscourier.com