JCRegister

Our Lady of Victories School on Ege Avenue, JC

The magic number is 225 to keep the school open for the another school year. Right now, the current enrollment for Our Lady of Victories School is 176, more than half below of its number a decade ago.

Almost yearly, there are reports of Catholic school closing or merging due to poor enrollment. With the exception of Hudson Catholic Regional High School in McGinley Square area last year, the efforts of parents, students, and alumni to save their schools seem to be put to waste.

To save OLV, the school will need at least 70 new students for next school year to cover for the graduating students this year, and to fill up remaining numbers to reach the required 225 students, assuming that the rest of the students stay. That will require tremendous marketing to get more students to enroll in the school. If you want to help save OLV, contact the principal… I have heard from friends that parents are planning to have fundraisers soon.

Our Lady of Victories School
Description: Elementary Catholic School, K-8,
Address: 240 Ege Avenue, Jersey City 07304
Phone: (201)434-4040 | Fax: (201)434-5356
Web: School | Parish
Principal’s Email: Mrs. Patricia Byrnes

Read the rest for the full news …

OLV School to close in June
Friday, February 13, 2009
By AMY SARA CLARK
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Due to dropping enrollment, Our Lady of Victories Catholic school in Jersey City will close on June 30, Newark Archbishop John J. Myers announced last night.

“It is an untenable situation,” Myers told more than 150 parents at the school. “Our Lady of Victories Parish does not have the financial resources to subsidize the school.”

Enrollment at the school has dropped from 365 students in 1999 to 176 today, Myers said. As a result, the school is losing $783 per student every year, he said. To stay open, the school would need a total of 225 students, he said.

“If we would continue with this number it would bankrupt the parish,” said the Rev. Victor E. Paloma, the church’s priest.

Plans call for the students of the K-8 school, located at 240 Ege Ave., to enroll at two schools, St. Aloysius, at 721 West Side Ave., and Our Lady of Mercy, at 254 Bartholdi Ave.

The decision to close the school was made by a committee of clergy, staff and parishioners from the three affected parishes – but no parents, Myers said.

Parents last night said they were upset they hadn’t been informed of the problem until the decision to close was already made.

“If you had brought it to the parents in time to get their opinion, maybe we could have done something,” said Bertha Ridley, to great applause. Her granddaughter is a fifth-grader at the school.

One parent suggested forming a fundraising committee to try to keep the school open. Myers said they could appeal the committee’s decision.

Jacueline Brevil, who has sent her three daughters to the school – one is in sixth grade and two have graduated – said she was “devastated” by the news.

“My daughter is still crying,” she said. “It’s a good school. All of us are like family here.”

News of the closing comes on the heels of other Catholic school closings in Hudson County in recent years.

Holy Cross School in Harrison and St. Stephen School in Kearny will merge into one school and take a new name at the end of this year.

News Source: Jersey Journal