Students, Parents Rally At Basilica To Save A Port Richmond Catholic School
By Mike Dunn and Nicole Brewer
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Chilly winds didn't stop parents and students at a Catholic school in the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia from traveling to center city today for a brief protest against the school's possible closure.
Chanting "Save our school," about a dozen parents and thirty students from the St. George School in Port Richmond gathered at the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul to protest the archdiocese's decision to close the school (see closure list).
Paula Wingate, who has a daughter and five grandchildren who are either graduates or still attending the school, said, "We wanted to let the archdiocese know that we feel they made a wrong choice. And this is an in-service day for the faculty, so the students have off, and this is a positive way that they can display their feelings and have their voices heard also."
Among the saddened students was fifth grader Robert Carrero.
"I've been there since pre-K, and I feel like I have a family there, not (just) friends," he told KYW Newsradio.
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia proposes merging St. George with Our Lady of Port Richmond School.
Joan Dawson, whose daughter is in the third grade at St. George, say the school, with about 200 students, is self-sustaining and has a waiting list.
"All of our bills are paid, we have no financial problems, and the archdiocese gives us no money whatsoever," she said today.
70-year-old Saint Hubert's in Mayfair held it's third rally since the announcement, marking today's affair with a call to action.
"We do think there are some factual errors within the Blue Ribbon Commission report specifically about Saint Hubert's," said Kathryn Ott Lovell, St. Hubert's Advisory Board.
However, before they can appeal, they have only 10 days to raise a lot of money.
"It's doubled from what we thought the deficit was, it's now one point two millions dollars that we would need to raise, that's even to secure an appointment for an appeal," said Lovell
