Two more Catholic elementary schools to close

Caught between falling enrollment and rising costs, two more Catholic elementary schools will close, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced yesterday.

St. Benedict Parish School at 1919 Medary Ave. in East Germantown and St. Ann Parish School at 418 Jefferson Ave. in Bristol will shut their doors in June.

The pastors of the two parishes informed parishioners recently that Cardinal Justin Rigali had accepted their recommendations to close the schools at the end of the current academic year.

St. Benedict has seen a steady decline in enrollment. A total of 164 children attend, and the number was expected to slip to 150 in the fall.

The annual tuition this year was $2,100 for Catholic families and $2,600 for non-Catholics.

The number of students attending St. Ann has fallen sharply since 2000-01, the archdiocese said. Despite efforts to boost enrollment and raise money to defray the cost of tuition, only 125 students attend the Bucks County elementary school this year.

Only five students pre-enrolled for the fall after the school announced that next year's annual tuition would more than double: jumping from $1,800 to $4,000 for parishoners' children and rising from $2,325 to $5,000 for others.

The archdiocese said school administrators and the Office of Catholic Education will help families find spots at nearby Catholic schools.

Earlier this year, the archdiocese announced that St. Bernard in the Northeast and Our Lady of Peace in Milmont Park, Delaware County, would close in June.