Officials: Catholic School Enrollment Stabilizing
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - The Diocese of Pittsburgh said in spite of recent school building closings, enrollment at local Catholic schools is stabilizing.
The man in charge of Catholic education briefed reporters today.
For this school year, the theme of Catholic school education in Pittsburgh is stability and officials are hoping that some of the school reorganizations will settle things down.
"If I had one word to describe our enrollment pattern over the past several years, it would be stable, consistent. words such as that. Recall that we have had 3,000 students at our preschools since about the year 2000," Secretary For Catholic Education Dr. Robert Paserba said.
Even so, Dr. Paserba, knows that buildings like the combined Bishop Leonard St. Mary of the Mount and St. Joan of Arc in South Park closed last year, which forced parents and student to scramble. Some of whom had already gone through a previous consolidation.
But, the diocese hopes those days are numbered.
"When we brought together Good Shepherd, Word of God in Swissvale and St. Morris, which became East Catholic, we were able to take nearly all of the children from those schools into the new school. Nearly all of them are there. Similarly for Mon-Yough. we have more children beginning than we had at the two schools so that people are seeing that - wow, now with a school with 300-plus kids or a school with almost 400, that brings about stability that we want and I can't say we can promise when your child begins kindergarten they'll finish that school in eight, but there's a greater promise for that," Dr. Paserba said.
This year, the Diocese expects about 21,000 in its 81 schools.
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