Bevilacqua's birthday: End of an era
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/n...al/6103958.htm
By David O'Reilly, Inquirer Staff Writer

Regardless of your feelings regarding religions, you have to respect a person who has lived their life according their beliefs and has done good throughout their lives. Has anyone here on the Blog had any interaction with him or been effected by himand his work?

Yeah I was affected. He was on a mission to close down my parish in Port Richmond because it was a small one. However, he couldn't because they never owed money. He just wanted to close it just for kicks, because they didn't make an assload of cash.

He also closed 2 other schools that didn't need to close.

When he was in Pittsburgh, before he came here, they hated him for closing all thier schoolws and basically almost killing the Pittsburgh Diocese. So they sent him here and he did the same thing.

Seeya Tony, don't let the door hit ya in the ass.

__________________
John Street Sucks. Duh.
STARSKREAM

My grade school was closed because of him. I have no resent, the school was failing anyway.

whew Yatesy, not that your bitter, or anything!! (just kidding). I think a lot of Catholic schools took a hit after the very tail end of the baby boomers went through school. There just weren't as many kids. The grade school I attended went down to two classes per grade, instead of three. Also, my highschool consolidated boys and girls shortly after I graduated. Do you think that Tony was just doing a job that had to be done?

Also, the Catholic population in a lot of neighborhoods has decreased drastically as white ethnics are replaced by African Americans and non catholic immigrants. I think some consolidation was warranted but I agree with Yatesy that Bevilaqua was a bit over the top. Some of those parish schools were really anchors in their neighborhoods and taking them away is a serious blow to those wanting to stay in the community.

You know why catholic high school's don't have as much kids as they used to? Tuition. They keep upping it every year and it's going to drive kids and families away because they simply can't afford it.

it doesn't help that people who send their kids to catholic school have to subsidize public school. Philly spends 8.5k per student itself.

There are millions of ways to keep those schools open.

There is 2 special ed programs in catholic grade schools in this city. Our Lady of Confidence (next to Nazareth Academy) serves down syndrome (and other forms of severe retardation) kids. St. Tim's has a special ed program that is such demand you need to be on a waiting list to get in. That's it. So why not open up those smaller schools as special ed schools, so the parents of these kids can still send thier kids to catholic school and know they are getting a good education. Also, there are no specialty schools with the exception of Mercy Vocational in the diocese. Why not turn one of the closed schools into a school for gifted kids (to compete with the kids who leave for Central and Girls High)? Or a school for technology? Or an arts school? Or a business school? Or for bilingual kids? I would bet good money that if the diocese stepped in an talked to some big benefactors, the money would appear. The thing is, is that they don't want productive solutions, they just want to sell the building and make money.

Did you know that Roman wanted to build a sweet fieldhouse, they had the plans and the money (all from alumni!) but Tony wouldn't give them the go ahead. Why? Because he has his eye on shutting that down too. There is rumbling that they are going to break off from the diocese and be like St. Joe's Prep, an independent school. So they still use thier tiny gym on the top of the building.

I understand a lot of people don't have the money to send thier kids to catholic school, but they make no effort to make it worth the while of the parents. For too long they have taken for granted that kids will just appear at the schools, you gotta make it worth thier while.

On a side note, they also need to do something about salaries if they want to hold onto teachers. I taught at a cathlic school and got first year teacher pay: 21,5k. If Tony would quit spending money on big robes and rings and kicked some more cash to teachers, maybe thier retention rate would be better.

__________________
John Street Sucks. Duh.
STARSKREAM

Isn't that OLC for grade school kids up by Nazareth tho? The high school one is in my school.