Your response to the Wildwood Catholic fiasco has been incredible. Here is the response of just one of our readers:
What does the reader mean? Sacred Heart High School, with the next lowest enrollment according to the Diocese/Catholic Star Herald, is the school at which Fr. Edward Namiotka, St. Mary's current pastor, has been president of for some time. As a side note, this is my (Julie's) mother's alma mater, a school my family supported and helped to found.
In saying this I personally am not claiming that Catholic schools do not need improvement. It is my sense that they do. However Bishop Galante has chosen, rather than attempting to improve these schools, to instead abandon them and, by extension, their students and teachers, alumni and communities. Let's face it. It's easier to just close a school than it is to wrestle with real problems, to pray for God's guidance, and to seek and implement real solutions.
In closing smaller, community schools, is low enrollment intended to be a reflection on administrative flubs, reflective of intentional sabotage (as has been stated by some in the case of Wildwood), or is Galante's real agenda to simply bus all Catholic high school kids in South Jersey, no matter the distance, to his proposed megaschool in Gloucester County? Maybe he just likes everything to be big.
Link to the Catholic Star Herald Stats above
"If Catholic high school enrollments are the sole criteria in determining which high school is closed, then look whose high school is next."Paul VI High School, Haddonfield -- 1,192
Camden Catholic High School, Cherry Hill -- 844
Gloucester Catholic High School, Gloucester City -- 729
Holy Spirit High School, Absecon -- 749
Sacred Heart High School, Vineland -- 289
Saint Joseph High School, Hammonton -- 417
Wildwood Catholic High School, North Wildwood --194
What does the reader mean? Sacred Heart High School, with the next lowest enrollment according to the Diocese/Catholic Star Herald, is the school at which Fr. Edward Namiotka, St. Mary's current pastor, has been president of for some time. As a side note, this is my (Julie's) mother's alma mater, a school my family supported and helped to found.
In saying this I personally am not claiming that Catholic schools do not need improvement. It is my sense that they do. However Bishop Galante has chosen, rather than attempting to improve these schools, to instead abandon them and, by extension, their students and teachers, alumni and communities. Let's face it. It's easier to just close a school than it is to wrestle with real problems, to pray for God's guidance, and to seek and implement real solutions.
In closing smaller, community schools, is low enrollment intended to be a reflection on administrative flubs, reflective of intentional sabotage (as has been stated by some in the case of Wildwood), or is Galante's real agenda to simply bus all Catholic high school kids in South Jersey, no matter the distance, to his proposed megaschool in Gloucester County? Maybe he just likes everything to be big.
Link to the Catholic Star Herald Stats above