After 105 years, since it’s foundation, St. Mary’s School will be closing it’s doors at the end of June.  After a month of meetings and strategy sessions, it is with sadness that we accepted the strong recommendation of the Diocese, to close our parish school.

The main reason for this decision is the financial situation, which consists of the debt to the diocese that has been increasing for several years (currently around $164,000.00) as well as to the parish (approximately   $75,000.00).

Other factors listed by the Diocesan Catholic Schools Office and The Office of Fiscal Affairs, included the condition of the school building, a decreasing number of students, cuts and savings which could affect the quality of education, and the uncertainty relating to the current pandemic crisis.  All these things combined forced us to accept their recommendation to close the school.

 Our school, founded in 1915, was built by Polish immigrants, who were parishioners of Our Lady of Czestochowa church.  St. Mary’s was not only a school, but also a second home to generations of children and youth, immigrants from Poland and others. During her 105 year history, St. Mary’s has endured various difficulties and struggles, but has managed to surmount them all, up to the present moment.  Immigration from Poland to the U.S. essentially stopped when Poland became a member state of the European Union in 2004. With that came demographic changes to our city and neighborhood, so that only a few families from the parish were still sending their children to our school (approximately 15 out of 200 students.)

However,  as we look back, we can proudly say that St. Mary’s has accomplished and fulfilled her mission as a parish school in service to the Parishioners of Our Lady of Czestochowa.

Even though St. Mary’s is  no longer a ‘parish school’ in this sense, we had hoped to be able to  continue educating and serving the local community, under the strong leadership of our exceptional Administration Team, who did such an outstanding job this past year, as wel as our dedicated faculty and staff. This was my thinking when I encouraged you last weekend to enroll your children in our school.  Now, unfortunately, this will not happen. Too many difficulties got in our way, and so it was that  last Monday we  received and accepted the final recommendation to close. 
 
I would like to thank everyone who has worked tirelessly, for their extraordinary efforts and sacrificial work for our school, especially in the last year, in order to keep St. Mary’s open. May God reward you for your dedication and sacrifice to His children and young people.                   

God Bless you all!
                                                   Rev. Richard Polek, pastor