Archdiocese says its not abandoning city kids for 'burbs

Tom Crossett graduated from Northeast Catholic, Class of '75. And for years, he has worked to raise money for the school. He's also an assistant coach for the soccer team, "the defending city champs," he said yesterday.

And just Wednesday, the day before the news came that both North Catholic - as Northeast Catholic is known - and Cardinal Dougherty would close at the end of the school year, Crossett was knocking on doors, meeting with other North Catholic alums asking them to support the North Catholic Falcons.

Then on Thursday, Crossett learned the schools' fate.

Crossett, who operates a money management firm, said he is upset because many of the 20,000 North Catholic alumni have been working hard to raise money for the school.

But Crossett said he believes the archdiocese is "putting its resources in the suburbs" rather than in the city.

"If things are so desperate, why are they opening two state-of-the-art schools in the suburbs?" Crossett asked.

"They're going where the money is," he said. "They're disenfranchising 1,200 boys and girls in the city."

But an archdiocesan spokeswoman said that after the schools close, there will be eight high schools in Philadelphia, "which is more than in any other county.' "

The spokeswoman also noted that the Office of Catholic Education was closing two high schools in Montgomery County - Kennedy Kenrick and St. Pius X. Students from those schools will be able to transfer to Pope John Paul II High School opening in Royersford next September.

Construction to replace Lansdale Regional Catholic High School has been delayed, she said.

Michael O'Neill, chairman of Business Leadership Organized for Catholic Schools, which raised funds to pay for scholarships for city children to attend Catholic schools, said "it's very disappointing" to see two more schools close.

"The church is not abandoning the kids in the city," O'Neill said. "We could fill every seat in this city if we raised enough scholarship money. . . . Catholic schools can't survive on the model under which they were created, which depended on large parishes in the city to pay for education.

"It's time for the community to get together to raise the scholarship money to send these children to get a safe, quality education, just like before when the parishes took care of it."