Parents and students of St. Agnes and St. Teresa Avila were saddened to learn that their schools will soon be joining the growing number of Catholic schools that are shutting down next year.
We recently reported the imminent closure of La Reina Catholic school in Ventura County. Now L.A. community members are grappling with the same fate.
“I’m sad because I’ve had a lot of memories here,” said Camille Gonzalez, a third grader at St. Agnes. “And if it closes, I’m not going to have too many more.”
In a statement, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles says enrollment has been a big issue. They say in the last five years, enrollment at St. Agnes has dropped 73.5% to only 60 students and at St. Teresa of Avila it’s declined 67.5% to 37 students.
The statement read in part, “Enrollment is expected to continue to decrease at both schools for the next school year.
The schools are no longer financially able to maintain operations at the level that we strive to provide for our families, teachers and staff.”
Parents are not giving up though. They’ve set up a GoFundMe, have been handing out flyers to raise awareness and gain support and a few of the parents have committed to run a marathon to raise money to keep the doors open.
“We’re trying to raise funds for the school,” said Britney Dominguez, Gomez’s older sister and a former student of St. Agnes herself. “The school is in debt with $200,000 and we are trying to raise at least $500,000 just to help maintain the school as well.”
“I strongly believe that we don’t need to be displaced, this is our home,” said Elvia Perez, another former student of St. Agnes and a parent of a current student. “We don’t need to be linked to another school that we don’t know, staff that we don’t know. This is our home.”
The L.A. Archdiocese say they’re committed to working with families to place students at other Catholic schools of their choice.
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