Re: [UC] West Catholic High School on the Archdiocese closing list

[Wilma de Soto]

Here's the rub.

School choice has turned out be really no  choice. Look at New Orleans
Public Schools Post-Katrina where Black people have to go to Texas to get
their Special Needs children and Charter rejects an education.

Look at Washington, D.C. post-Rhee where so many "failing schools" have been
closed that people do not have neighborhood schools to send their children.

Paul G. Vallas is now in the Bridgeport, CT schools and his salary is being
paid by mega-rich anonymous donors.

Unproven, undocumented charter schools are killing every access to education
in the inner cities and poor people everywhere.  Even though they are not
proven to be better than Parochial Schools or traditional Public Schools,
charters are being rammed down everyone's throats except in the suburbs
where the "status quo" works just fine.

Since NCLB began ten years ago, high-stakes testing has been the determining
factor for everything; let's not mention that CTB-McGraw Hill is owned by
Standard and Poor and Pearson Testing has been called to the courts
according to Forbes' magazine.

Parochial schools are subject to the same state standards as Public schools.
Their test scores are never printed in the papers as public schools are.
Trust me, if their scores were better than public schools their scores would
have been published.

Many Catholic school parents cannot afford the tuition for schools that are
not outpacing public schools.

The Ku Klux Klan sees nothing wrong with the segregation of inner-city
students in Charter Schools; in fact they favor it.  http://kkk.bz/?p=2460
They are back in political power under the guise of the Right-Wing Tea Party
as well as the John Birch Society co-ounded by the Koch Bros. father.  They
hate Blacks, Jews, Catholics, homosexuals etc. If Catholic Schools fold,
they would feel happy about that as well as segregated Charter schools.

That's all I need to know.

From:  Elizabeth F Campion 
Reply-To:  Elizabeth F Campion 
Date:  Fri, 6 Jan 2012 23:01:04 GMT
To:  , UnivCity listserv

Subject:  Re: [UC] West Catholic High School on the Archdiocese closing list

Dear Craig and list neighbors,
 
In number of schools and number of families affected, it appears that North
Philly has taken a much harder hit than West Philly or even South Philly.
 
As a graduate of West Catholic, I have very mixed feelings.
My siblings and I got good educations at West Catholic.  I graduated as a
National Merit Scholar from a family so poor the "Poverty Line" was well
above our financial horizon.  My class rank and SAT scores, combined with
family poverty got me a free ride at PENN, which was another good education.
I appreciated the "Catholic stuff".  I enjoyed studying Latin and it is
still useful when I encounter words or phrases I that are unfamiliar to me.
The process of looking for "roots" helps even when words do not have a Roman
origin.  I also learned a lot about comparative religions during the
mandatory religion classes.  And from some teachers I learned to question
authority and from others the real world consequences of doing so.  But, I
did not like the cliques and parochialism.

My kids went to West Catholic.  It was still a good school while my
daughter, who graduated in 2004 was there, but... deterioration had begun.
Some of the best Teachers left for other schools, (Mr. Monillas comes to
mind), and it seemed harder to get good teachers to sign on, (the Math
department seemed in total disintegration while my son was there 2005-9).  I
wish I had pulled him after his Sophomore year, but he loved his social
network, the Track team and the Theater department.  I let him persuade me,
I convinced myself the extra-curricula rs would outweigh his Math grades,
but... that is not the way it has played out.  I recognize that the
alternatives, within my budget, were West Philly (still not viable) or
Central (an hour commute each way) or Roman (I should have taken that
option).  The big picture, is the ongoing failures of our Public Schools.
 
I have wonderful memories of elementary school St. Francis de Sales, but
unless you are willing to pull your kids in 5th grade, Masterman HS is ruled
out.
For each of my kids, (who had brilliant test scores), the Masterman HS class
was filled from their lower school with no outside kids being accepted.
Both kids were accepted at Central, but I considered it only equivalent to
WC and thus not worth the extra time wasted commuting.
I do not want a do-over.  I think St. Francis did a better job, for my kids
and many others, than Masterman could have done.  Among examples outside my
family, St. Francis has produced Connelly and Gates Scholars.
 
The economic reality at WC was that total enrollment had dropped below 400.
The Archdiocese has its share of financial problems, many self created, but
it is not in the business of losing money to pick up the slack for failing
public education.
My graduating 

Re: [UC] West Catholic High School on the Archdiocese closing list

[campio...@juno.com]

Dear Craig and list neighbors, In number of schools and number of families 
affected, it appears that North Philly has taken a much harder hit than West 
Philly or even South Philly.  As a graduate of West Catholic, I have very mixed 
feelings.
My siblings and I got good educations at West Catholic.  I graduated as a 
National Merit Scholar from a family so poor the "Poverty Line" was well above 
our financial horizon.  My class rank and SAT scores, combined with family 
poverty got me a free ride at PENN, which was another good education. I 
appreciated the "Catholic stuff".  I enjoyed studying Latin and it is still 
useful when I encounter words or phrases I that are unfamiliar to me.  The 
process of looking for "roots" helps even when words do not have a Roman 
origin.  I also learned a lot about comparative religions during the mandatory 
religion classes.  And from some teachers I learned to question authority and 
from others the real world consequences of doing so.  But, I did not like the 
cliques and parochialism.
My kids went to West Catholic.  It was still a good school while my daughter, 
who graduated in 2004 was there, but... deterioration had begun.  Some of the 
best Teachers left for other schools, (Mr. Monillas comes to mind), and it 
seemed harder to get good teachers to sign on, (the Math department seemed in 
total disintegration while my son was there 2005-9).  I wish I had pulled him 
after his Sophomore year, but he loved his social network, the Track team and 
the Theater department.  I let him persuade me, I convinced myself the 
extra-curricula rs would outweigh his Math grades, but... that is not the way 
it has played out.  I recognize that the alternatives, within my budget, were 
West Philly (still not viable) or Central (an hour commute each way) or Roman 
(I should have taken that option).  The big picture, is the ongoing failures of 
our Public Schools. I have wonderful memories of elementary school St. Francis 
de Sales, but unless you are willing to pull your kids in 5th grade, Masterman 
HS is ruled out.
For each of my kids, (who had brilliant test scores), the Masterman HS class 
was filled from their lower school with no outside kids being accepted.  Both 
kids were accepted at Central, but I considered it only equivalent to WC and 
thus not worth the extra time wasted commuting.
I do not want a do-over.  I think St. Francis did a better job, for my kids and 
many others, than Masterman could have done.  Among examples outside my family, 
St. Francis has produced Connelly and Gates Scholars. The economic reality at 
WC was that total enrollment had dropped below 400.  The Archdiocese has its 
share of financial problems, many self created, but it is not in the business 
of losing money to pick up the slack for failing public education.My graduating 
Class had 503, the "Boys" and "Girls" schools each had about 2,000 students, so 
this is more than a 90 percent reduction (from >4,000 to <400).Many of the 
current students are not Catholic, they are kids who couldn't leap the hurdles 
to get into any of the few decent Public High Schools and whose parents would 
not settle for West Philly.Most on this list are working and paying taxes and 
many have kids and will need good schools.
Some (Amara, Vivian, Freda and others) seem to be making important 
contributions as regards the schools.As I mourn the loss of West Catholic, I 
wonder what we, as a citizenry, can do to create safe, functioning Public 
Schools.
I am learning the limits of my dollars and 'spare' time, and want to stick with 
the areas in which I am already contributing, but I welcome posts that define 
opportunities to make a difference and hope the under-performing will step up. 
Best!Liz 
-- Original Message --
From: craigso...@aol.com
To: aroc...@gmail.com, ucneighb...@googlegroups.com, UnivCity@list.purple.com
Subject: Re: [UC] West Catholic High School on the Archdiocese closing list
Date: Fri, 6 Jan 2012 16:34:23 -0500 (EST)


This not good for 
us west of the Schuylkill. I posted this comment earlier on Facebook. You are 
welcome to pass it on to ucneighbors. The magnitude of this closure is stunning 
as it relates to West Philadelphia & Eastern Delaware County. Whether it 
reflects changing demographics or it sets in stone a new demographic remains to 
be seen. A community without schools is not a welcoming community for families. 
While I have been admonished in the past to never give the priest a hard time, 
I am stunned by the Archbishop's announcement ...as well as his decision to 
sell-off the "Cardinal's Residence". One thing poor people need to remember is 
more quiet fortunes were made in this country through the ownership and control 
of real estate. You find adaptive reuse for such parcels so that they generate 
a continuing cash flow. A non-profit that is not making money will go

Re: [UC] West Catholic High School on the Archdiocese closing list

[Craigsolve]

This not good for us west of the Schulkyl.
 
I posted this comment earlier on Facebook. You are welcome to pass it on to 
 ucneighbors.
 
 
The  magnitude of this closure is stunning as it relates to West 
Philadelphia &  Eastern Delaware County. Whether it reflects changing 
demographics or 
it sets in  stone a new demographic remains to be seen. A community without 
schools is not a  welcoming community for families. While I have been 
admonished in the past to  never give the priest a hard time, I am stunned by 
the 
Archbishop's announcement  ...as well as  his decision to sell-off the 
"Cardinal's Residence". One thing poor people need  to remember is more quiet 
fortunes were made in this country through the  ownership and control of real 
estate. You find adaptive reuse for such parcels  so that they generate a 
continuing cash flow. A non-profit that is not making  money will go out of 
business; people become tired of supporting beggars, or is  that a too 
Republican/self-help philosophy for those in our local ecclesiastical  world?

 
 Ciao,
 
Craig
 
 
In a message dated 1/6/2012 3:37:49 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
aroc...@gmail.com writes:

_http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20120106_Archdiocese_school_clos
ings_mergers.html?&c=n_ 
(http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20120106_Archdiocese_school_closings_mergers.html?&c=n)
   



PHILADELPHIA  NORTH 
Pope  John Paul II Regional, Bridesburg, merges with St.  Timothy at the 
Levick Street site. 
St.  George, Port Richmond, merges with Our Lady of Port  Richmond at the 
Thompson Street site. 
Holy  Cross, Mt. Airy, merges with Our Mother of Consolation,  Chestnut 
Hill, at the E. Chestnut Hill Ave. site. 
St.  Bridget, East Falls, merges with Holy Child, Manayunk, at the  
Hermitage Street site. 
Incarnation  of our Lord, Olney, merges with St. Helena at the N.  Fifth 
Street site. 
Our  Lady of Consolation, Tacony, merges with St. Matthew at  the Cottman 
Avenue site. 
Our  Lady of Ransom merges with Resurrection of our  Lord at the Shelmire 
Avenue site. 
St.  William merges with St. Cecilia at the Rhawn Street  site. 
St.  Martin of Tours becomes a "mission school," with no change to the  
current school configuration. 
St.  Hubert High closes outright. 
PHILADELPHIA  SOUTH 
Our  Lady of the Blessed Sacrament merges with St.  Donato at the 65th 
Street site. 
St.  Laurentius merges with St. Peter the Apostle at the  5th Street site. 
Annunciation merges  with St. Nicholas of Tolentine at the Pierce Street 
site. 
St.  Gabriel merges with St. Thomas Aquinas at the Morris  Street site. 
St.  Malachy merges with Visitation BVM at the Lehigh  Avenue site. 
Epiphany  of our Lord, Holy Spirit, St. Richard, Our  Lady of Mt. Carmel 
and Sacred Heart merge at the  former Stella Maris site. 
Our  Lady of Lourdes closed, students asked to select from Our Mother of  
Sorrows/St. Ignatius, St. Rose of Lima, Mary, Mother of Peace 
West  Catholic High closes outright.
-- 
I foster with City  Kitties: _Rocco and  Red_ 
(http://citykitties.org/adopt/adoption-listings/?page=pet&id=4152313) 

[UC] West Catholic High School on the Archdiocese closing list

[Amara Rockar]

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20120106_Archdiocese_school_closings_mergers.html?&c=n

PHILADELPHIA NORTH

*Pope John Paul II Regional*, Bridesburg, merges with *St. Timothy* at the
Levick Street site.

*St. George*, Port Richmond, merges with *Our Lady of Port Richmond* at the
Thompson Street site.

*Holy Cross*, Mt. Airy, merges with *Our Mother of Consolation*, Chestnut
Hill, at the E. Chestnut Hill Ave. site.

*St. Bridget*, East Falls, merges with *Holy Child*, Manayunk, at the
Hermitage Street site.

*Incarnation of our Lord*, Olney, merges with *St. Helena *at the N. Fifth
Street site.

*Our Lady of Consolation*, Tacony, merges with *St. Matthew *at the Cottman
Avenue site.

*Our Lady of Ransom* merges with *Resurrection of our Lord *at the Shelmire
Avenue site.

*St. William* merges with *St. Cecilia* at the Rhawn Street site.

*St. Martin of Tours* becomes a "mission school," with no change to the
current school configuration.

*St. Hubert High* closes outright.

PHILADELPHIA SOUTH

*Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament* merges with *St. Donato* at the 65th
Street site.

*St. Laurentius* merges with *St. Peter the Apostle* at the 5th Street site.

*Annunciation* merges with *St. Nicholas of Tolentine* at the Pierce Street
site.

*St. Gabriel* merges with *St. Thomas Aquinas* at the Morris Street site.

*St. Malachy* merges with *Visitation BVM* at the Lehigh Avenue site.

*Epiphany of our Lord*, *Holy Spirit*, *St. Richard*, *Our Lady of Mt.
Carmel* and* Sacred Heart* merge at the former Stella Maris site.

*Our Lady of Lourdes* closed, students asked to select from Our Mother of
Sorrows/St. Ignatius, St. Rose of Lima, Mary, Mother of Peace

*West Catholic High* closes outright.
-- 
I foster with City Kitties: Rocco and
Red