The closing of the St. Paul the Apostle Regional Catholic School has caused much pain, sorrow, anger to the administration, teachers, and staff of the school and the parish families including the clergy of the parish which is very understandable. A number of things need to be pointed out:

• In the autumn of 2013 St. Paul the Apostle School ceased to be a parish-school and became a regional school. This means that the parish no longer ran the school. This was taken over by the regional school system run by the Archdiocese.
• The parish became the “landlord” of the school-building with certain responsibilities for the upkeep of the building while the region paid for the insurance related to the school, utilities, part of snow-removal and the like. The day-to-day running of the school was overseen by the Archdiocese and not the parish.
• The parish had no say in the closing of St. Paul’s School. It was notified of a decision already made by the Archdiocese. The parish expressed disagreement with this decision to the Archdiocese and the manner in which it was carried out. This disagreement was expressed on multiple occasions.
• Now all the expenses, that the regional school system was paying for: the insurance, utilities, heating, snow removal fall back on the parish.
• The Yonkers Public School has expressed interest in leasing the building for their needs, but nothing firm has been negotiated and this is in the discussion-stage. St. Mary’s parish and Christ the King parish, in Yonkers, leased their buildings to the Yonkers public school after their schools were closed. Both parishes remain open. The parish of St. Dennis was closed and merged with St. Peter’s in Yonkers. The school-building and the former rectory of that closed parish is being sold.
• St. Paul’s parish is not closed. Our school building is NOT being sold nor is it being designated for use for any kind of shelter. Any talk to this effect is simply false and amounts to idle gossip and helps no one.