[StBernard] Fr. Maestri HANNAN HIGH IS NOW BEEN BULLDOZED

[Westley Annis]

WHO WOULD INVEST TO REBUILD A CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL IN AN AREA WHERE THERE IS
ONLY
ONE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL?   Hannan was fed students from the local Catholic 
elementary schools.
The area can not yet support the amount of schools it once had, public,
private, or Catholic...Maybe one day, but not now..

Some of you may remember what the parish was like years ago, with a smaller
population.  We had onlyl two high schools Chalmette and St. Bernard.  It
wasn't feesible then nor now to have a Catholic High SChool in the Parish.
Many from St. Bernard went to Holy Cross or Holy Angles for High School.

The Catholic  elementary school enrollnment in St. Bernard parish was
declining prior to Katrina (partially due to North Shore flight of the more
affluent population, partially because of the cost of living) people were
finding it harder to justify the expense of Catholic education.
The archdiosise was looking to consolidate schools because of the cost of
doing business.
The area will have to build and grow for a while in order to have the
services, stores and conviencenes that were there before Katrina.

The decesion to return is based on the cost of rebuilding or reinvesting
weighed against the the expected number of students that will attend...(or
the return on that
investment)
This decesion is a business one...If the school is rebuilt it has to pay for
itself..(As you may not know the Catholic schools self insured themselves.)
So this means Capital outlay,  with a chance that the school may not pay for
itself...


We all have to realize whatever it was you liked about St.Bernard Before
August of 2005,  it wasn't built in a day>  It took a long time to develope
into what it was and it might be a while before it is anything like we
remember...

GJS