[StBernard] Does the Archdiocese have a clue?

[Westley Annis]

Archbishop Blenk to close
 
Reversing course for the third time in less than a year, the Archdiocese of
New Orleans will close the 46-year-old Archbishop Blenk High School in
Gretna at the end of the school year and shift its students to Immaculata
High in Marrero. 

Under a plan announced last spring, students at both schools would have been
consolidated at Blenk's Gretna Boulevard campus, and Immaculata closed,
until construction of a new all-girls Catholic school on the West Bank.
Then, a second plan to retain both campuses under a new name was announced
in October. 

But zoning and financial issues, including a $2.1 million operating deficit
last year and a projected $1.3 million cost to expand the Blenk campus for
the merger, coupled with a shortage of room to expand buildings and parking,
led the archdiocese to change its plan, the Rev. William Maestri,
superintendent of Archdiocese of New Orleans schools, said Thursday. 

"That makes it impossible for us to continue our presence at the Archbishop
Blenk site," Maestri said. "So we believe the better thing for us to do is
to move everybody to the Immaculata site." 

Blenk and parent students [sic], who have protested the merger since its
announcement last year, learned of closure Thursday. 

Some parents anticipate an exodus of students away from both schools, said
Tammie Puyau, a Blenk alumna, who has a graduating senior and a sophomore at
the school. She plans to transfer the younger girl to Cabrini High School
for the 2007-08 school year. 


"What's happening now is West Bank girls are going to go to east bank
schools," she said. "I personally know 11 at this point. They all said the
same thing: At this point, this is not a merger. This is a closure." 

David Messina, the father of a freshman who will move to Mount Carmel next
year and two daughters who were going to attend Blenk, said parents told
Maestri all along that Blenk lacked parking and faced a spacial shortage in
the event of a merger. 

So Messina said he doesn't understand the change in rationale for the newest
plan. 

"I'm embarassed to be a Catholic by the way Father Maestri has handled this
merger," he said. 

Teachers told students on Thursday to check an Internet site for an
announcement on the merger plans, and that's how they and their parents
learned of the news, Puyau said. 

"This is the third plan since June," she said. "You can't keep tagging
parents and girls along with this. Those girls are mad and hurt right now." 

The new school created through the merger will be called Our Lady Academy,
which is expected to provide expanded academic offerings for students,
Maestri said. The archdiocese will soon launch a study on building a new
campus. 

"We are committed to quality Catholic education for women on the West Bank,
and we believe that in establishing this new academy at the Immaculata
campus, we would be able to do that," he said. 

"We are also committed to conducting a responsible feasiblity study to open
a brand new school to serve young women with Catholic education on the West
Bank," he said. 

Blenk opened 46 years ago, while Immaculata celebrated its 50th anniversary
last year. 

Blenk has about 550 students, while Immaculata has about 270, Maestri said.
"Both of those populations could be housed at the Immaculata campus," he
said. "We would hope that parents would choose to avail themselves of this
particular opportunity." 

The future of the Blenk site remains unknown. 

"We would have to look at how we would use the property," Maestri said.
"Those particular plans are not finalized, but it would not be for the
Archbishop Blenk High School."