Catholic school closings: Parents race

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

On Tuesday morning, Carolyn Hanna toured Archangel School in Irondequoit, where she plans to send her three children if Bishop Matthew Clark follows through with closing St. John of Rochester School in Perinton.

In addition to pictures of Martin Luther King, Amelia Earhart and Anne Frank, students at the school had decorated the walls with colorful renditions of Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Elizabeth Seton.

Inclusion of such religious heroes matters to Hanna, whose children attend one of 13 Catholic schools in Monroe County that are slated to close in June.

Since the decision was announced Friday, hundreds of parents have met to devise strategies to persuade the bishop to save their schools. Catholic schools not affiliated with the diocese, such as Archangel, have been flooded with requests for enrollment information.

Some Catholic school supporters have called for the Rochester Roman Catholic Diocese to follow a national trend of converting doomed schools to "values-based" charter schools.

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