A Catholic school in Philadelphia will close in June after 112 years.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that rising building costs and a declining student population are forcing the closure of St. Gabriel Catholic School.
It has fewer than 130 students in a building that could accommodate hundreds more, says Bruce Robinson, chief executive of Independence Mission Schools, which operates St. Gabriel.
Most St. Gabriel’s students are expected to shift to St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School, which is about a mile away and is also part of the Independence Mission network. The network was formed in 2013 to support a group of city Catholic grade schools that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia had targeted for closure.
The St. Gabriel building is owned by the parish, not by the network, and so its disposal or reuse will be up to the church.
St. Gabriel’s tuition has been subsidized by the network, Robinson says, and those subsidies can now benefit students at St. Thomas Aquinas and across the system, which will have 14 schools after the St. Gabriel closure.
