BX school shuts its doors on last day of classes

On the last day of the school year Friday, St. Pius V Elementary School at East 144th Street closed its doors for good after 95 years. ?This would not have come to this if we could have been able to

News 12 Staff

Jun 20, 2008, 5:43 PM

Updated 5,957 days ago

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On the last day of the school year Friday, St. Pius V Elementary School at East 144th Street closed its doors for good after 95 years.
?This would not have come to this if we could have been able to work together,? says Diana Santa, a 1971 alum of St. Pius V. Five of her children also attended the school, but two of them will not get the chance to graduate now.
Despite the protests and vigils parents held to mourn the closing of the school, the Archdiocese of New York decided to shut it down, together with five other Catholic schools around the city.
Some parents say, however, that they were never given a clear explanation as to why the school is closing its doors.
Parents say they feel the principal and the archdiocese did not do enough to keep the school open. They claim the principal was on vacation for most of the time the debate over the school?s fate was going on, and the archdiocese never returned their phone calls.
A spokesperson for the archdiocese says the decision to close St. Pius was made because enrollment has been decreasing over the years, and the nearby Saint Jerome School has better facilities and extracurricular activities.
Still, some students, who came to St. Pius Friday to pick up their report cards for the last time, say they don?t want to move.