St. Joseph School will close in June

Florida — Last year there was jubilation as St. Joseph School in Florida was spared from the biggest realignment in the New York Archdiocese’s history. But joy turned to despair this week as the Archdiocese announced St. Joseph will close its doors for good at the end of this school year. “Primarily, the continually declining enrollment was the reason for our decision,” said Dr. Jacqueline LoFaro, an associate superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese. “There are only 36 students registered for the fall session.” St. Joseph’s was one of 14 schools earmarked for closing last year and the only school in Orange County. Instead, parents pulled together and made an impassioned plea to the Archdiocese to save their school. Last April they received the bittersweet news—the school would be spared but the upper grades would be eliminated, at least temporarily. This school year, grades pre-K through sixth were taught at St. Joseph’s, with grades five and six combined. Wednesday was the last half day of school for St. Joseph’s before the Easter break. No one was available at the school to comment. Messages were left with Rev. Joseph Tokarczyk, pastor of St. Joseph’s Church, and the school’s Parent Teacher Organization president but not returned at press time. LoFaro said there are no plans right now for the school building or the adjacent building, which was once used as a convent. She said she will work with the three nearby Catholic schools — St. Stephen-St. Edward in Warwick, St. John’s in Goshen, and Sacred Heart in Monroe — to accommodate those students who had registered at St. Joseph’s for the 2007-08 school year, if that is what the parents want. “They (parents) merely need to get in touch with us for a quick transition for their kids,” said LoFaro, who also stressed this was not an easy decision. “It is never an easy decision,” she said. “You can only hold on so long. It is not a decision we wanted to make. We are just as upset about closing this school.”