LA’s Roman Catholic schools faced challenges; the pandemic helped shut six of them down

It’s not the kind of message any parent would like to get after a year of COVID-19.

“Our dear school is going to cease operations on June 24th,” read the note on St. Catherine of Siena School’s website home page. “We are not taking applications at this time.”

The note concluded: “Thank you, St. Catherine of Siena School for all the moments of Excellence and Faith.”

It was the end of an era for the nearly 70-year-old Reseda school, one of six throughout the Los Angeles Archdiocese that will close and consolidate with other diocese schools as the region begins to emerge from a relentless pandemic that took lives, livelihoods and, at the end of this school year, for the diocese, actual campuses.

“The human element of this is deep and wide and is a sobering reality of a region that has changed over the decades,” said Paul Escala, superintendent of schools at the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. “We’ve been operating schools since 1851 in Los Angeles and we’ve see the region expand and contract, and just like any other system of schools we mirror what happens in our neighborhoods and our communities.”

As he told parents and staff about the closings: “This pandemic has not come without its consequences.”

It meant the end for some, including St. Catherine of Siena, established in the early days of a post-World War II L.A. boom as people settled in the rapidly growing San Fernando Valley.

Also closing at the end of the school year are:

• Assumption School (Los Angeles);
• Blessed Sacrament School (Hollywood);
• St. Ferdinand School (San Fernando);
• St. Francis of Assisi School (Los Angeles); and
• St. Madeline School (Pomona)

The diocese is working to transition about 300 students and the closing schools’ staffs into larger, neighboring Catholic schools.

Families that receive tuition assistance from the Catholic Education Foundation will continue to receive financial support.

“The DCS will work with families who are in need of aid to help mitigate tuition costs and ensure a smooth transition for students and their families,” according to a diocese statement.

The schools were institutions in their communities, which for years weathered the ebb and flow of the local economy and the changing demographics of the region.

But as Escala put it, when that growth contracts, “we contract.” That made it ever more frustrating for him personally, he said, because he, too, is a produce of Catholic schools.

The shfiting demographics and challenging socio-economic challenges go back 20 years, Escala said.

It was 12 years ago when then President George W. Bush convened a coalition of education stakeholders to address the “deeply troubling but vastly under-reported phenomenon limiting the education options available to low-income urban families: the rapid disappearance of faith-based schools in America’s cities.”

Schools were disappearing in urban areas. From 2000 to 2006, Roman Catholic dioceses across the country lost 564 schools, affecting 257,756 students, according to the federal report.

The diocese — which operates 233 schools in L.A., Santa Barbara and Ventura counties —  is also helming  institutions where tuitions range in average from $5,000 annually for elementary grades and $10,000 annually for high schoolers.

Escala touted the value of such an education at a time when the diocese, its parishes and schools have done much to raise money from philanthropic sources. Parochial schools boast strong testing performance, commitment to students and the faith-based approach many households consider vital, he said.

He noted that average tuitions have remained relatively steady as the cost of living in Los Angeles has skyrocketed.

“It’ become very, very hard to raise a family in Los Angeles,” he said, referring to the cost.

Often, the success from region to region might depend on the success of a parish to raise money to offset the costs of its school.

The pandemic — with its resulting job loss and economic fallout — amplified those issues, to the point where diocese officials had to come to face a difficult question: Can they continue to operate under the current conditions and continue to meet “our promise” to be transparent with staffs, parents and students about the future, Escala said.

Even among the hardships, archdiocese officials continued to celebrate student academic performance results showing “continued growth, thanks to the commitment and hard work of teachers, staff, and families.”

Over 60% of the diocese’s high school students assessed via the Renaissance STAR assessment grew academically at a typical or high rate in Math and Reading from fall 2020 to winter 2021, compared nationally with their peers, officials noted.

Officials also point to massive food distributions to needy students and to the distribution of thousands of digital devices to students.

As the schools close, rich legacies go with them.

For example, St. Madeleine Catholic School in Pomona was founded in 1964. It was named after St. Madeleine Sophie Barat, who was received into the religious life and founded the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, according to its website

The Sisters of St. Joseph in Orange operated the school.

In the early years of the school, the sisters provided for grades 1-5. In 1967, a junior high was added. In 1975, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange resigned and the ministry of the lay principal and teachers began.

In 1991, the school added kindergarten class and in 2001 a preschool was added. In 2009 junior high left St. Madeleine and moved to the Pomona Catholic Girls High School campus.

And you find similar histories all around.

“Very difficult,” Escala said. And as he told parents, staff and students: “This pandemic has not come without its consequences.”