St. Katharine Drexel Academy in San Diego is struggling to stay open and must raise funds and enroll more students by next month to avoid closure.
One of the only two schools still operated by the Catholic Diocese of San Diego faces a demanding deadline in order to stay open. St. Katharine Drexel Academy in the College Area is working to raise half a million dollars and enroll another 30 students by the start of next month. If it can’t, it will have to close by the end of this school year, said Kevin Eckery, spokesperson for the diocese. “Sadly, these decisions are driven really by one thing, and that’s enrollment,” Eckery said.
“Unfortunately there’s just been a continuing enrollment problem at St. Katharine Drexel.” Eckery said Katharine Drexel and St. Mary School in Escondido are the only two Catholic schools that are operated by the diocese, which spans San Diego and Imperial counties. There are 41 other K-8 schools that are run and funded by local parishes, plus five high schools that are independently run. Altogether Catholic schools within the diocese enroll about 14,375 students. Enrollment got a bump during the pandemic because Catholic schools reopened sooner than many school districts did. But that surge has now subsided, and enrollment has flattened, Eckery said. The Catholic high schools have waiting lists, but the K-8 schools generally have to work harder in monitoring enrollment and finances, he added. Katharine Drexel serves the mid-city parishes of Blessed Sacrament, Holy Spirit and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. The school is the result of a merger more than six years ago of Blessed Sacrament and Sacred Heart schools. Katharine Drexel’s enrollment has only shrunk since that merger. There were 177 students between Blessed Sacrament and Sacred Heart before the merger; when the merged school opened in 2018, there were 150 students, Eckery said
SCHOOL CLOSURE Catholic Schools Enrollment Funding San Diego
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