Parents rally to save school

Holy Trinity Community Lutheran School has been a fixture in Hollis for 32 years – but that could end this month.
The Metropolitan New York Synod of the Lutheran Church has decided to close the pre-K through eighth-grade school, effective Tuesday, June 30. Synod officials reportedly said the school is being closed because they can no longer bankroll it.
A group of about 50 parents, calling themselves the Concerned Parents of Holy Trinity Community Lutheran School, gathered in the school auditorium, at 90-20 191st Street, on Wednesday, June 17, to plan their next move.
Despite the news of the closing, the parents were optimistic that their children might be able to return to Holy Trinity in the fall – if their application for a charter school is approved by the city’s Department of Education.
City Councilmember Leroy Comrie joined the parents as keynote speaker, and expressed disappointment that the Synod “had not been more creative in trying to find solutions to keep Holy Trinity open.”
He said that, after the parents approached him, “I reached out to the Synod in the hopes that they would be willing to come to the table to discuss ways to keep the school open.”
“Unfortunately,” Comrie continued, “all I received in response was a tepid letter which really didn’t explain why they were closing the school.”
Founded in January of 1976 as Holy Trinity Nursery School and Pre-kindergarten Day Care for the children of working parents, the school grew with the children, adding a grade each year. In 1984, its first eighth grade class graduated.
From a high of about 190 students, registration has reportedly dropped to about 120, necessitating “hundreds of thousands” in subsidies and the announced closure.
“There’s a limit to the resources,” David Olson, a spokesperson for the synod reportedly said. Olson, the interim assistant to Bishop Robert Rimbo, also said that St. Stephen’s Lutheran School in Brooklyn would go dark at the end of June.
“It’s too bad, but it’s a challenge when you have so many schools that are facing the same problem,” he reportedly said.
Parents are not buying that story, saying that the synod is slating Holy Trinity and other schools in “communities of color” for closure, while Lutheran schools in the city with lower enrollment “continue to receive the Synod’s support.”
A group from the school has approached the city’s Department of Education (DOE) about converting to a Charter School, according to Melody Meyer, a DOE spokesperson.
“It’s happened in the past,” Meyer told The Queens Courier, cautioning that charter schools are secular, and that no religious instruction or services would be allowed if the school was chartered.
Meyer called the timeline for keeping the school open “extremely tight.”
“The DOE would have to vote for it, and so would the State Regents – at their July meeting, if the school was to open in September,” she said. Other schools have closed for a time before re-opening as charter schools, Meyer pointed out.
The parents’ group also announced that they would take their case to an Anti-Racism Rally on Wednesday, June 24 at Union Theological Seminary in Manhattan.
Repeated calls to the Metropolitan Lutheran Synod were not returned by press time.