WHY did Rev. Myles P. Murphy, the pastor of St. Michael Parish, close St. Michael Academy???

[Are_grits_groceries]

After more than a century on the West Side of Manhattan, St. Michael Academy had assumed the traits of some of its best students: cash poor, underestimated by peers, capable of defying expectations with breathtaking regularity.

An all-girls Roman Catholic high school, St. Michael’s admitted many students who had been rejected by every other parochial school in the city because of poor grades or troubled behavior — then graduated three-quarters of them with state-certified Regents diplomas.

“These were kids, some of them, who never in their life had anybody take an interest like that,” she said. Now, she added, “there is no Catholic school for girls on the West Side, not from downtown all the way up to the Bronx.”

For years, it cobbled together contributions from Wall Street donors, alumni and some of its own teachers and administrators to maintain a fragile educational hothouse that placed 95 percent of its graduates in college.

And with a total enrollment of only about 200 students, it has fielded one of the best girls’ basketball teams in the country. The team was state champion in 2009.

Then, on a Friday afternoon in March, students and teachers learned that St. Michael’s, established by Irish nuns in 1874 to educate the children of the New York waterfront’s longshoremen, would close at the end of the school year.

The announcement came just a few hours before the talent show. Girls in the cast ran to the office of an assistant principal, Michael Duff, crying “like it was the end of the world,” he recalled. “I said: ‘Look, we could postpone it until Monday. Nobody would hold it against you.’ But they said: ‘No, we’ve got to have it today. Today!’ ”
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That devotion to a St. Michael’s education hardened into a kind of bitterness this spring, as many parents and alumni complained that they were blindsided by the decision to close.

“I went to parents’ meetings, and never once did anyone tell us that we should try to raise money, try to recruit more kids to come to the school,” said Carmen Ruiz, the mother of an 11th grader. “We could have painted the place. Everybody would have helped. But ‘We’re closing?’ Like magic, that’s it?”

Alumni raised pledges of about $50,000 in the three days after the announcement, but said no school or church official would meet with them to discuss alternatives to the closing.

Michael Radice, whom the school hired last year to raise money and enrollment, said the decision to close was made by the Rev. Myles P. Murphy, the pastor of St. Michael Parish, and was unforeseen by the entire staff, including Mr. Radice. Father Murphy declined requests for interviews.

Mr. Radice, who has been acting as Father Murphy’s spokesman, said informing parents and alumni earlier about the school’s straits might have generated some money, but might also have scared away potential enrollees. Unaware of the imminent closing, school officials had increased freshmen enrollment for next year by 20 percent. “Apparently not enough, as it turned out,” he said.
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Starting in September, the school building will be leased to the city’s Board of Education, which plans to use it to house a middle school, the Clinton School for Writers and Artists.
There's more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/nyregion/11closing.html?pagewanted=1

From another article:
After nearly a year of wrangling between parents and the city, the Department of Education has pledged not to house the Clinton School for Writers and Artists in a school for special-needs children.

Under the city's latest plan, the Clinton School will instead be moved to a building currently occupied by St. Michael’s Academy at 425 W. 33rd St. The move involves a seven-year, $11.2-million lease agreement with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, according to a newly-released environmental impact statement.

“This deal is a winner for everyone," Jack Zarin-Rosenfeld, a spokesman for the Department of Education, said on Friday. “Thanks to a newly available site and tremendous cooperation from the Archdiocese, the Clinton school will have a new temporary space while we build its permanent home.”
Read more: http://www.dnainfo.com/20100604/chelsea-meatpacking-district/parents-education-officials-reach-deal-over-clinton-school-for-writers-artists#ixzz0qc3QcHg7

I think this is all about the Benjamins. It also shows a complete disregard for the least among us. This was a school that took at risk students and helped them make themselves into kids with a bright future.

Of all the schools in the world to close, this was one of the worst choices. I think they were sandbagged by Radice along with Murphy.

This school should have had a lot of support for the long haul. It was always going to have students who began with less than stellar records. The benefits are there to see in the photograph. The longer term benefits to society as a whole are also great.

Unless they were secretly a coven running a school for drug dealers, this doesn't pass any smell test. I'll bet the 'leaders' can find the money for a whole lot of things they want, but that are a lot less vital.

Meh!