Two Catholic schools to close

Two Queens Catholic grammar schools officially announced last week they would be closing their doors for good in June. In letters to angry and upset parents, American Martyrs School in Bayside and Queen of Peace in Flushing each claimed large deficits forced the imminent closures.
Queen of Peace actually came close to shutting down last June when 26 other city parochial schools, including Holy Cross in Maspeth and St. Teresa’s in Woodside, shut down. However, they were unable to avoid the purge this year.
In a letter from the new Monsignor George F. Zatarga, parents of American Martyrs School were informed they would have to find a new school this September. He mentioned the declining enrollment, which fell from 223 in 2001-02 to 176 this year.
The Monsignor wrote that the Parish had been subsidizing the school to the amount of $75,000 per year for the last four years. This year’s deficit, he said, would be $118,000 and to keep the school open, it would leave the Parish close to bankruptcy. Nearby St. Robert Bellarmine School, located just a mile away in Bayside, will open its doors to each student. That, however, came as no relief to upset parents.
As recently as the February 16th issue, The Queens Courier reported American Martyrs would close, and last Friday parents received the inevitable letter.
Several parents claimed they were only informed that the school was in trouble at a meeting in January with the school’s principal, Barbara Kingston, and recently-retired Monsignor, John Keppler, who spoke of a possible closing. “We were all surprised because the Monsignor only told us [about the school’s financial problems] in January,” parent Helen Smith said. “But apparently he’s known about the problems since last May.”
“It’s heartbreaking when you think about it. Nobody told us the school was in terrible shape. All of a sudden, this year the school’s closing. It’s like nobody’s working for us. They’re working against us,” said parent Sandra Battisti, whose oldest son, Paul, 12, would’ have graduated next year, and a younger child, Dominick, who was preparing to begin nursery school at American Martyrs.
“If we had time to prepare for this we could’ve raised funds,” Smith said.
A trustee and member of the finance committee of American Martyrs Church, Jack Goydas, didn’t see it that way. He said Monsignor Keppler published the school’s financial statements and posted them at the school and church.
“It’s almost impossible to believe [parents didn’t know] about the financial problems,” he said. “The rumors had been going around for a long time.”
Goydas also mentioned enrollment, finance and planning committees were all formed after many parents heard of the school’s dire financial straits back in December. However, the last-ditch plan to raise the necessary funds failed.
Queen of Peace Pastor James Tighe said a “tremendous debt had accumulated in the course of a few years” in his letter to parents. He said the school used the Parish reserves to make up for the dearth of funds to keep the school open every year, but the reserves were not enough for next year’s proposed deficit of $200,000, which would be based on an enrollment of 215.
The only hope, Tighe said in the letter, was to enroll a total of 300 students that would balance out the budget. The Diocese gave them a deadline of February 1st, which was not reached, and they were looking at fewer than 200 students for next year.
The Brooklyn Diocese refused to comment.