BRIARCLIFF MANOR, N.Y. – Community members expressed shock when it was announced that St. Theresa Catholic School in Briarcliff Manor was announced in 2012 as "at-risk" of closing by the end of the school year.
The Archdiocese of New York announced in November that the Catholic elementary school is one of about 120 in the archdiocese that are “at-risk” of closing.
St. Theresa School teaches roughly 150 prekindergarten through eighth-grade students from Briarcliff Manor and surrounding communities and employs more than 20 teachers and staff, school officials said.
Community members said enrollment will have to increase to 200 or the community will have to raise roughly $1.5 million to make the school viable for the future.
Michael Molinelli, a Briarcliff Manor parent and member of the community group trying to save the school, said the archdiocese recently laid out four issues the school would need to address. The group is set to make a presentation addressing the four issues (demographics, enrollment, funds and viability) at a private meeting with the archdiocese at the beginning of January.
“St. Theresa School had a couple of rough years, and it was a red flag before the announcement, but we think we can turn that around,” Molinelli said. “There’s a lot of good that’s going on here and unfortunately that’s not what the archdiocese looked at when they made the announcement. We’re on the way back up and we just need a couple more years to get back to where we were.”
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