Photo: QueensPost
Jan. 27, 2012 Staff Report
St. Raphael School, a Catholic elementary school in Long Island City, will be closing this June due to declining enrollment and rising costs, The Tablet reported yesterday.
Father Jerry Jecewitz, the pastor, sent a letter to parents on Jan. 20 that read: “We had agreed to a specific goal, strictly time-bound to last September, to raise the 160 students enrollment to 200. We needed to do so in order to combat the school deficit of $150,000 in the last fiscal year – a six-fold increase from the year before – and the projected deficit, which is fast approaching $200,000 in this present fiscal year.
The closing comes shortly after the school is celebrating its 50th anniversary in March. It also comes shortly after Corpus Christi School, a Catholic elementary school in Woodside, announced that it would close.
Announcements will be made in the coming days for transitional assistance to neighboring Catholic Elementary Schools, according to the Tablet.
On the school’s Facebook page, there are 35 comments, with one person writing: “It’s so sad. Some of my best memories are from my years there.”
