Last day for closing S. Jersey school

The tears began flowing the moment the first-grade teacher put her arms around Jeanine Sweeney.

"When you start a family, you expect that your school, your church, is going to be around for your children, just like it was there for you," Sweeney sniffed after a hug from Sue Tumulty, her son's teacher.

At Our Lady of Grace and Holy Rosary Regional School in Somerdale and eight other Catholic schools in South Jersey, yesterday was not just the last day of school this year, but the last day of school forever.

In November, the Diocese of Camden announced that the nine schools must close or merge because of declining enrollment - just one of many consolidation plans instituted by Catholic leaders around the country, including Philadelphia.

The Our Lady of Grace school closing has been particularly painful for local Catholics, who are losing their church, too. In parish closings announced this year, Bishop Joseph Galante ordered Our Lady of Grace merged with St. Lawrence and St. Luke's, with the worship sites for the combined parish in Lindenwold and Stratford.

When Sweeney and her siblings attended the little school on the White Horse Pike, the schoolyard was packed - 800 students. Now, with just 123, Our Lady of Grace School will merge with St. Lawrence and St. Luke to form the new John Paul II Regional School in Stratford.

Sweeney had hoped that Ben, 11 months, and Julia, 3, would follow in the footsteps of James, 7. She's sending James to a Gloucester Township public school in the fall, but doesn't know if it will measure up to Our Lady of Grace.

"It's exactly what you want as a parent," Sweeney said of Our Lady of Grace.

It's been exactly what Lois Schuhl has wanted as a teacher, too. Schuhl has been teaching Our Lady of Grace's eighth graders for 33 years, and packing up her room for the final time this week has been tough.

"It's very bittersweet," Schuhl said. "There are so many memories. No matter who's been at this school, it's always been special."

Waiting for the school's closing Mass to begin, Jackie Young dug in her purse for the extra tissues she'd brought.

"This is heartbreaking," said Young, who lives a few minutes away from the church. "I graduated from this school, I got married here, my kids were christened here."

Bret, her oldest, is already in high school. But her sixth grader, Jason, will go to the new school.

"This is just devastating," Young said. "He'll make new friends, but it won't be the same."

At the Mass, the Rev. Tom Barcellona, Our Lady of Grace's pastor, walked down the aisle of the simple church with stained glass windows and high wooden beams, sprinkling worshippers with holy water.

"This is new life - a baptism, a blessing," Barcellona said. "It's unpaved territory ahead, but we will all survive, with faith."

At the time of the closings, Galante said lower enrollments were making some schools a drain on their parishes.

"We do this and we do it now, because we must," Galante said.

As the last notes of Mass died down, Pam Darley could hardly believe the battle was over. When the school nearly closed five years ago, Darley spearheaded a campaign to keep Our Lady of Grace alive.

Through walk-athons, comedy nights and raffles, parents, children and parishioners raised about $80,000 to stave off closing the low brick schoolhouse.

This time, there were no miracles.

"It's really hard," said Darley, mother of four children at the school.

Giving goodbye hugs to teachers, secretaries and custodians, Angel Colella was trying to keep it together for Paul, a sixth grader, and Justine, a fifth grader.

"My son had 10 kids in his class for the past year," Collella said. "We're a family."

There was one bright spot, though, that Paul pointed out - when he goes to John Paul II, there are bound to be more girls than the two currently in his class.

"I'll miss it a little bit, but I'm mostly happy to be out of school," Paul said.

After Mass, children spilled out into the schoolyard for an ice cream treat. They licked cones and talked about how strange it would be to go to a new school in the fall.

"I'm sad," said Mackenzie Gorham, 7. "I'll miss everything."

Katie Napolitano, 10, said she would miss "a lot of nice memories and nice teachers."

Jackie Shannon, 10, admitted being a little worried about John Paul II.

"It's going to be bigger than we're used to," she said.

"And the other kids at the new school are probably already close," Katie added.

But James Sweeney, Jeanine Sweeney's first grader, chose to look at the positives while wiping a mouth ringed with chocolate.

"It's OK," James said of his school's closing. "I got ice cream."

That's just the attitude Joan Simpson was hoping for. Simpson, the school's principal, smiled at a schoolyard buzzing with excited children.

"We tried to make this a happy year even though we knew what was coming in the end," Simpson said. "We tried to tell them it was only a building that's closing, and that we're still a family."