Fight to save Delco’s St. Kevin school goes high-tech

Parents at St. Kevin Roman Catholic School in Springfield, Delaware County, have sent letters, held candlelight vigils, and made pilgrimages to the Shrine of St. John Neumann in Northern Liberties to try to persuade Cardinal Justin Rigali to reconsider closing their school.

Now, the activists at the elementary school are going high-tech.

Monday night, a digital billboard on the Schuylkill Expressway between the University Avenue and South Street exits was to start beaming their message: "Cardinal Rigali, you've been misled. Hear St. Kevin's truth."

"All the parents have been brainstorming about a way to get the cardinal's attention," said Mary Mackey, who has three children at St. Kevin. "We've been calling the office, sending e-mails and writing letters, and it seemed like we were not getting to him. We thought we had to go larger."

Over the years, parents and Catholic school alumni on both sides of the Delaware River have tried myriad ways to try to keep their schools open, but St. Kevin is the first to opt for a high-tech ad.

Patrick B. Gillespie Jr., president of Shannon Outdoor Advertising, an advertising broker in Ardmore, has donated the 14-by-48-foot digital display for two weeks.

Gillespie, who is neither a St. Kevin parent nor an alumnus, said he was displaying the message as a favor to a friend of a friend.

A typical, monthlong ad costs $7,000 and cycles through a display with five to seven others, he said.

"We started talking about this on Friday," Gillespie said. "And with a click of a switch, it will be live" Tuesday.

Eastbound drivers can expect to see St. Kevin's message all this week, and westbound commuters will see it next week as well.

Parents at the parochial school at 200 W. Sproul Rd. said they were blindsided when they learned June 9 that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia was closing their school because of low enrollment.

The school has 158 children from prekindergarten through eighth grade, but the archdiocese said only 93 had registered for the fall.

Parents, alumni, and students, though, say that the decision to close the school was made using information that may have been correct in early May but was outdated. More than 130 children had signed up when the archdiocese informed parents of the closing 11 days ago. Additional prekindergarten and kindergarten pupils were expected to register over the summer, parents said.

At the St. Kevin meeting, archdiocesan Superintendent of Schools Mary E. Rochford told parents the cardinal's decision was final. The parents, however, asked Rochford to carry a message asking the cardinal to reconsider since his decision was based on old information.

Jim Hanley, president of the St. Kevin Home and School Board, said Monday that parents had heard nothing from the archdiocese since that meeting.

Kenneth A. Gavin, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said Monday there had been no change in the school's status.

"It's closed," he said.