News of the merger has been greeted with dismay by some parents, students, and alumni of Mount Saint Joseph.
“It’s a sad day for The Mount,’’ said Judge Regina Quinlan of Suffolk Superior Court, who graduated in 1960. “My two sisters and I went there, and we got a great education. There’s more of an ability to focus on the academic part of it than being distracted by boys.’’
But, she added, enrollment and budget shortfalls are a reality for all Catholic schools. A former member of the Sisters of Saint Joseph, which sponsors The Mount, Quinlan taught at two grammar schools that are closed.
The new coed high school will be located at Mount Saint Joseph Academy’s Brighton campus, and officials hope to open with 400 students, 200 from each of the two merging schools. Each school has about 30 teachers, who can reapply for their positions. A search committee is looking for a headmaster, and the Sisters of Saint Joseph will be the school’s sponsors.
The closing of The Mount is the latest in a trend that began in 1979, when St. Patrick’s in Roxbury closed, followed by St. Gregory’s in Dorchester and Cardinal Cushing in South Boston in 1992, St. Clare’s in Roslindale in 2002, and Monsignor Ryan in Dorchester the following year. All were girls’ high schools. Two all-boys’ Catholic high schools remain in Boston: Boston College High School in Dorchester and Catholic Memorial in West Roxbury.
Elizabeth Seton opened in 2003, through the efforts of alumni upset by the closing earlier that year of Monsignor Ryan Memorial High School for girls. It will graduate 24 students this year, and is hoping that the merger will increase its enrollment as parents look for a single-gender alternative.
“We can say we’re the only one left in Boston,’’ said Seton’s principal, Maureen White, who relies heavily on private donors. “We’re carrying on the tradition.’’
Catholic educators say there are several reasons schools are closing. Chief among them: Fewer people are attending church and giving money, and the more affluent Catholic families have moved to the suburbs, which tend to have better public schools.
