LA Archdiocese Won't Budge on Plans to Close Catholic High School; Parents and Students Hold Protest, Write Letter to Pope
California Catholic Daily
November 20, 2007
http://calcatholic.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?id=027d35f8-df8f-429c-8e11-c55d9cc50de9
On Saturday, Nov. 17, about 200 parents, students, and alumni of Daniel Murphy High School in Los Angeles, carrying signs reading "Don't Make the Children Pay" and "No More Victims," marched from Pershing Square to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.
 |
The parents are pushing the Los Angeles archdiocese to keep the 53-year-old Catholic high school open. Last month, the archdiocese announced it would close the school, located at Third and South Detroit streets. An October archdiocesan news release cited "severe financial challenges" as a reason to close the school.
Though the archdiocesan news release did not say so, proceeds of the sale of the high school could go to help pay off the archdiocese's estimated $373 million portion of a $660-million settlement with victims of molestation by priests.
According to the October release, the chief reason for closing the school is a decline in student population, which "efforts to increase student enrollment over the past ten years" have not ameliorated. A parent's letter to Pope Benedict XVI, received by California Catholic Daily, however, claims that archdiocese in the past capped freshman enrollment and that for the past three years at least, "there has been no official Archdiocese involvement with enrolment at Daniel Murphy." The letter claims that parents did not know that the school was in bad financial condition or that the archdiocese was subsidizing it until the archdiocese announced it was closing the school.
Parents of students at the school have said they would be willing to pay higher tuition, as well as raise funds, to keep the school open. According to the parent's letter received by California Catholic Daily, parents have agreed to a $1,000 per year increase in the current $5,100 tuition, bringing in an extra $240,000 a year to the school. The parents agreed, as well, to two mandatory school raffles, which, they hope, would bring in another $80,000. The money would replace the archdiocesan subsidy for the school, which has been about $180,000 a year, according to the letter.
Archdiocesan officials rebuffed the parents and their fundraising plans at a meeting last month, parents' supporters told the Nov. 18 Los Angeles Times. They claim the archdiocese has forbidden school supporters from meeting on school property and has told faculty and staff not to assist them. Parents say the archdiocese is intent on selling the school's 2.7-acre site, which, say parents, could bring $25 million to $40 million.
The archdiocese has said it will not reverse its decision to close the school. In a statement, archdiocesan spokesman Tod Tamberg called the decision "irrevocable." The archdiocese, said the statement, "will continue to work with parents and students to help make the transition to new schools as easy and as affordable as possible."
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.