St. Clement’s Elementary School to Close Due to Declining Enrollment
Saint Clement School, a Catholic school connected to a Medford church, has announced it will close its elementary school due to declining enrollment. St. Clement’s currently serves students in grades pre-K through twelve. According to a statement posted on the school’s website, St. Clement’s will continue to enroll students in pre-K and grades 7-12.
A parent and alumnus of the school has started an online petition to keep St. Clement’s open.
The full statement is below:
Medford. February 10, 2016
Dear Saint Clement School Families,
Our parish school has been a blessing to the Saint Clement Parish for more than ninety years. When the Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo was entrusted with the pastoral care of St. Clement Parish in June 2013, we made the school one of our top priorities.
One of the first steps we took was to begin to gather a group of dedicated people among our parishioners and alumni, to constitute a school board. In addition, our superiors asked Rev. Franco Soma FSCB to leave his post at Cristo Rey Boston to begin working at Saint Clement School this school year, 2015-2016. One of our priests, Rev. Paolo Cumin FSCB was asked to teach mathematics and religion to spend time and energy getting to know the school itself.
In these many months working at Saint Clement, we have noticed some important trends that affect our neighborhood. There are fewer families living in our area, our parish has a lot less young people than it used to and the local area Somerville and Medford have become expensive places to live, especially for younger families. Our Elementary School has been deeply affected by these trends. Our enrollment has steadily declined over the last decade to the point that our parish and High School have been supporting the Elementary School for years, now, shouldering an increasing deficit.
After careful and prayerful consideration, working with the Archdiocesan Office of Catholic Schools, we have come to the conclusion that – in order to give Saint Clement School a fair chance to survive as Catholic teaching institution, with its important tradition and history – we are called to make some dramatic changes to restructure the school as a whole.
The first step is a particularly difficult, if necessary, one: any elementary school needs to have its primary base in the immediate neighborhood; unfortunately this is nowadays lacking, as the steady decline in enrollment and the closing of schools in our area witness. This is the main reason why we have determined the parish can no longer maintain grades 1 through 6 beginning next academic year. No changes will be made before the current school year concludes. We will continue to enroll students in the Pre-K as well as grades 7-12 where enrollment, while challenging, is staying consistent.
We value, respect, and share your desire to give your children a Catholic education, therefore we are already acting in collaboration with the Archdiocese of Boston to present you opportunities to enroll your children in the neighboring Catholic Schools for the next school year, 2016-2016. We plan to have a scheduled evening meeting with the area Catholic Schools to come to our school site to present and discuss their school program and help you review options for the coming year. Our School leadership team is committed to assisting in the careful placement of our students during this transition.
We know well and appreciate deeply the tradition of Saint Clement Elementary: the great work and dedication of the Sisters of St. Joseph, that led it for decades, the efforts and personal sacrifices of lay teachers and administrators, together with all the faithful and clergy of Saint Clement Parish to offer to you, and the People of God in Medford, Somerville and other communities nearby a faith-based Catholic education. In this same spirit, we need to acknowledge that important reforms are called for if we want to give Saint Clement School a chance to restructure, consolidate, and hopefully prosper again in the future.
As members of your faith community, we realize all too well how all of you, dear students and families, and the good people of St. Clement are sentimentally connected to our elementary school; many parishioners are in fact alumni and alumnae. Still we would like to communicate to everyone our enthusiasm for educating young people in the Catholic Faith, openness to God’s plans on our life, and true Wisdom.
St. Clement is a family. We ask for you to join us in this effort to not only provide for a smooth transition for the students in grades 1-6 but also to demonstrate to the wider school and parish community that despite challenges we can accomplish many wonderful things working together on behalf of the people of God.
This decision is our best chance to start our reform of Saint Clement School, its mission and proposal to Catholic families and all families that look to us for a good education that can respond to the challenges facing the People of God in Boston.
Fr. Stefano Colombo FSCB
St. Clement Parish Administrator
Thank you for sharing the link to the petition. As for the statement from Fr. Stefano you should look into it more. Numbers are low….interesting, but not the case. In fact after open house last weekend they have more potential students for the next school year. There is more to this story and I hope you take interest to find the truth. Also you should know Fr. Stefano is letting the principal go. This man is loved by staff, parents and the community. The students are crying and upset because this is the man they look up to as he has changed many of their lives in the best possible way. Teachers are now losing jobs and not just at the elementary school. We need to help our school and staff!
This decision was made by the Pastor only. The Board of Directors, staff, families and parent committee were not consulted. The group currently serving as clergy is not from the Archdiocese of Boston. They are a Fraternal order with a different approach to Catholicism than most would be used to. It appears they want to transform Saint Clement School into a school system that would overlook the inner city children that need a school environment like this to excel and make it on to college, for some of these students they will be the first in their family to do so. It’s a shame that the Catholic Church wants to omit the families that need them. Very sad.
My child goes to the elementary school because he was beaten up in a Boston public school. SC elementary took him in and he has never done so good his grades are great and he is no longer afraid. That’s all because of the staff at that school. Please help keep this school open for these children.
It’s a real shame you have to close the elementary school with such a rich and vibrant history. I remember my time fondly at St C’s.
This is so devastating. My son loves this school and is heartbroken that he is being pulled from all his friends and the teachers he loves. This isn’t right.
The Parish Schools of St. Clement’s were founded to serve the local students of the Somerville/Medford area in 1912. They have expanded to serve Students who need a Catholic parochial education from the surrounding area.
It was never our Parish’s wish or ultimate goal to be part of FCBS Mission to bring their Fraternity to Boston.
Would it have been better to close the parish or merge? There’s a reason Fr. Dever was there for so long, alone and ill. The only reason the parish *wasn’t* merged was because the order took it over. I’m not saying they’re perfect, or even close, but I believe it was better than the alternatives.
Fr.Colombo has not be involved with the elementry school nor does he have any interest in the school. He could even tell you the names of the teachers / administration staff in the elementry school. It’s a shame that they sent out registration forms and wanted a $150 deposit for next year knowing dam well he was closing the school down.
For those interested in supporting the parish/school and showing that there could be a dynamic shift in support from the parish/area, please consider attending the upcoming Catholic Daughters fundraiser. Signature on a petition, comments on an article that a few dozen people will see won’t make a different. Helping to change the bottom line will.
http://somerville.wickedlocal.com/article/20160208/NEWS/160206405
We will and do attend events in the Parish. The simple fact is that the fraternal order serving our Parish have not worked well with local funeral homes lately. The priests have not been involved with the community. The proof in that is how the fall bazaar went this year. A couple of key people involved were ill and no outreach was given to help in the planning. The priests have no problem running events that work for their order in our facility and have not brought one family to either school. The fact that at the Board of Director’s meeting no one was asked for input or was given a proposal to follow, shows their intention has been to further their fraternal order and not the Parish or school. Were they sent here to assist a Parish or do the Archdiocese’s dirty work?
Conspiracy theories aside, let me ask you the bottom line question — the grammar school has gone further in to debt, year over year, and was only kept afloat by a very generous gift and now that endowment is gone. Enrollment has been down, year over year, for almost a decade. Should the school be kept open as it is, continuing to hemorrhage money from the parish and the school, or should something be done to try and build it back up? Before you answer that please understand that I ask as a life long parishioner of St. Clement’s, as an alumnus of the school, and as a parent who planned on sending my eldest there in the fall. It kills me to see the grammar school temporarily closed and my heart is broken for Bob and the affected faculty and staff. Ultimately, all efforts to pull out of the nosedive the school has been in have failed and something more drastic may be the last chance.
This is a disgrace!!! There is more going on to the elementary school closing then what we are being told!! My son started over there and is still now attending as a freshman this year!! The Elementary School is a BIG part of this Parish and School. It is where these young kids come in and learn by the greatest teachers I know!! They develop them into becoming the best young adults a parent can only hope they become!! We need more Catholic students, because kids today are not properly raised and taught how to be better. And that is what is wrong with this World lately!!! St. Clement will end up losing not only the elementary school, but the high and then the parish!! Because students and parents will no longer be attending if this elementary closes!! Look deeper into this with the “Priest” who have dine nothing for this school since being “assigned” here!!
As someone who has his kids in the school, I wonder: where were all the people who are complaining now, when the school was slowly dying, in the past few years? I have been around St Clement for the last 10 years, and since then, I have been hearing about the financial issues of the school. Enrollment has NOT been going up. Period. My kids’ classes were always the same size, or smaller. What happened was just inveitable and kudos to them for having the courage to do so. My understanding is that the Pastor is closing the grammar school in order to save the high school. Or should we close that too? If you had come to the Parish as well, you would know how Fr Colombo and the others are giving everything to support and serve the community, and the fact that they might have some interest in this closing is just outrageous. Also, how would they benefit exactly?
Yes, I agree completely…The people who complain and petition and criticize the priests should be out there pounding the pavement and beating the bushes for enrollment if they’re so concerned about keeping the school open. The priests alone cannot sustain the school…the parish-church responsibilities alone are massive…it is a huge parish! And the innuendo about motives is outrageous, completely inappropriate, and unfair. Clearly, the parish administrator cannot make a move or communicate anything about this without the Archdiocese’s total approval, in advance. The priests here may be the messengers more than anything else. I’m also heartbroken about the school, but the elementary-school is a community, and it’s incumbent on that community to be involved enough all along to help the school prosper –not wait for a crisis and then shoot from the hip with all the tirades about motives. I believe that there may well be a way to keep the school open, but it will have to be done in partnership (parishioners and parish leadership together) and not this adversarial foolishness which only hurts the cause. It’s astronomically expensive to keep an elementary school solvent and to pay teachers any kind of a living wage.