"News of closing brings tears and a vow at Nazareth School" by Megan Woolhouse, Globe Staff | January 31, 2009
WAKEFIELD - .... Our Lady of Nazareth High School, a small, all-girls high school set atop a hill, was always spared - at least until this week, when students, parents and faculty learned that the school, the last one founded by the nuns and still in operation, will close at the end of the academic year....
When the news was announced Wednesday night, amid the tears and crying came vows from parents and alumni to do whatever it takes to keep the school alive....
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Students at "Naz," as the school is known, spent much of the day commiserating. Sophomore Amy Dzierzek left school yesterday bleary eyed from crying. "It's pretty depressing," she said. "We had a box of tissues going around in every class. We didn't do much work."
Last year, the only remaining nun from the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth order who had been teaching at the school retired. She was 77, school officials said, and retired to the order's sprawling mansion in Bardstown, Ky. Our Lady of Nazareth's principal, Sister Joanne Forker, is the only remaining member of a religious order working at the school. She is a member of the Sisters of Saint Joseph. The school employs 36 faculty and staff.
The sisters of Charity of Nazareth have about 600 members, and the majority now work with the poor outside the United States, in places such as India and Africa.
"They're an aging community," Forker said. "They just don't have the resources" to run the school. Forker said officials from the Boston Archdiocese came to the school yesterday to offer their support. The diocese has closed six schools in the last year, Forker said, though none were high schools.
The fate of the school property is unclear. The school sits on 30 rolling, currently snow-covered acres off Mansion Road. Sister Rose Howard, who came from Kentucky to make the announcement, said the nuns have not put the land up for sale and have no plans to do so at this time.
Yesterday, some students said they were already looking ahead. There was talk of creating class rings, and organizing proms, dances and semiformal events for students to mark the school's last year. After school yesterday, 15-year-old Kaylee Martin said she doesn't know where she will go to school next year. But she knows she will miss the camaraderie she found at Naz....
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"At St. Joseph, hope for another miracle as school faces closure" by Kathy McCabe, Globe Staff | January 31, 2009
SALEM - .... The school is due to close in June, beset by low enrollment and debt....
Closing St. Joe's will leave Catholic education adrift in this heavily Catholic, North Shore city....
St. Joe's plea comes as the Boston archdiocese, like others around the country, struggles to maintain urban schools....
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I thought our children were supposed to be important in this country.
I guess I was wrong.
