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Prayers answered for 10 Catholic schools

STUDENTS AND STAFF at St. Gabriel School this morning will do what generations of South Philly residents have done when they're celebrating.

Donna Siemien and daughter Caitlin, a third-grader at St. Laurentius School, attend a prayer meeting yesterday celebrating the appeal win. (Laurence Kesterson / Staff Photographer)
Donna Siemien and daughter Caitlin, a third-grader at St. Laurentius School, attend a prayer meeting yesterday celebrating the appeal win. (Laurence Kesterson / Staff Photographer)Read more

STUDENTS AND STAFF at St. Gabriel School this morning will do what generations of South Philly residents have done when they're celebrating.

They will strut like Mummers outside the Grays Ferry school, on Dickinson Street near 29th, because school officials won their appeal with the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to keep their school open as a separate entity.

The Archdiocese had announced in January that the school would merge with St. Thomas Aquinas, at 17th and Morris streets.

"We are thrilled beyond words. It's a gift," said Sister Noreen James, St. Gabriel's principal. "We're going to live the dream; that's our school motto."

St. Gabriel students "were hugging one another, clapping and cheering" when the news was announced yesterday afternoon, James said. "We are one big, happy family."

St. Gabriel is one of at least six Catholic elementary schools in the city - others are St. George, in Port Richmond; St. Laurentius, in Fishtown; St. Matthew, in Mayfair; St. Richard, in South Philadelphia, and St. Cecilia, in Fox Chase - that successfully appealed and will remain open or be kept from merging. Four suburban elementary schools also had successful appeals.

Meanwhile, teachers and parents in South Philadelphia were told that the site of a new regional school, Stella Maris, has been nixed. Instead, Sacred Heart of Jesus and Our Lady of Mount Carmel will merge with Epiphany of Our Lord, 12th and Jackson, to become a regional school. St. Richard, 18th and Pollock, will remain open and become a regional school with Holy Spirit School, various sources confirmed.

Sacred Heart, Mount Carmel, Epiphany, Holy Spirit and St. Richard were all to close and begin a regional school at the former Stella Maris site, on Bigler near 8th.

St. Matthew and St. George will remain parish schools, various sources told the Daily News.

The appeals process began after the Jan. 6 announcement of closures and mergers. Each school sent top officials to present appeals to representatives from the Office of Catholic Education, the Archdiocese School Board and the Blue Ribbon Commission, the panel that originally made its recommendations for closures and mergers to Archbishop Charles Chaput. Outside educators from area universities also heard appeals.

Three high schools also presented appeals. The Archdiocese informed those schools - St. Hubert's, Monsignor Bonner-Archbishop Prendergast and Conwell-Egan - that those decisions would be delayed by a week because Chaput received "new financial information," according to Rita Schwartz, president of the Catholic teachers' union.

Also, representatives of those three high schools and West Catholic High School, which is also set for closure but didn't appeal the decision, are expected to meet at 7 a.m. today outside the city to discuss "other options for the high schools," said another source working with a school who spoke on condition of anonymity. "There are lots of people and philanthropists offering solutions and help in the 11th hour."