ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (WKBW) — The fight to keep a Catholic school in Orchard Park open is underway. The Catholic Diocese of Buffalo informed parents at St. John Vianney School of plans to close the school at the end of the year.
"We were very blindsided, very shocked, and very angry," said Angeliea DeMarco, school parent.
"We were definitely shocked by it all," added Kristal Janowski, school parent.
Parents told me they received an email from the Buffalo Diocese Monday night saying their school would close.
"We were told no schools were going to close so, this wasn't on our minds,” remarked Joanne Ehman, school parent.
Just hours after the diocese issued its final list of church and merger closings, which included St. John Vianney Church, Bishop Michael Fisher appeared at the school for a private meeting.
School families were told it was part of the plan to close and merge their church and school into Queen of Heaven in West Seneca and Nativity School in Orchard Park.
The Catholic Diocese of Buffalo announced the final plans to close and merge churches across the entire eight counties of Western New York.
"We were even told over the summer that the diocese is past closing any schools, and not to worry about that," explained DeMarco.
"We don't want to close schools," stated Bishop Fisher.
Tuesday, Bishop Fisher said the diocese is working on a strategic plan to deal with struggling schools.
"When you have a school that doesn't have enough children in the seats or enough finances. Sometimes faculty plays a role in that, and we may have too many schools in one area," said Bishop Fisher. "We're looking at those kinds of things."
Queen of Heaven is a possible option for parents if St. John Vianney closes. I reached out to the principal at Queen of Heaven who said she does have the "capacity" for more students.
"Queen of Heaven said that they have room for 70 children in their school," Ehman said. "we have more than 70 children at St. John Vianney."
"I do not prefer to send my child to either of them. They're both great schools, but it's just not the atmosphere that I would prefer my children to be in," added Janowski.
School families held a peaceful rally outside the meeting and parents say the bishop had a change of heart giving them an extra school year.
"When he was like, 'Okay, what? What do you need?' I just got goosebumps," Ehman reflected.
"Once he saw the passion that we had, he believed that that passion is strong enough for us to be able to continue on with this school year, so he made the decision that night, and I think everybody was shocked. Nobody expected that we would not be closing at the end of the school year. We're going to have another school year to be able to work together with other catholic schools in this area to come up with a plan," DeMarco reflected. "We're thankful that the bishop opened his ears, that he opened his heart, that he was willing to listen to us and give us this opportunity, and we're going to take full advantage of it."
But the diocese tells me this means school leaders and families must work closely with their education department, Queen of Heaven and Nativity to develop a future and the school must reach financial and enrollment benchmarks.
DeMarco tells me they will begin to work with the two other schools and will be seeking community help.
"Because at the end of the day, we're all part of the Catholic religion and Catholic Diocese, and we need to be a family. We need to work together. So we're going to work with them to come up with a strategic plan for education. But really we need if anyone in the community is willing to come and help, whether it's through donations, sponsorships if anybody who's been thinking about Catholic education wants to come and just look at our school, go through a tour," responded DeMarco.
