Overview:
Sacred Coronary heart Catholic Academy in Queens’ Cambria Heights, New York, will shut after the 2025-2026 college yr, ending a long time of service to immigrant households, together with a big Haitian group presence. The Diocese of Brooklyn cited declining enrollment and monetary difficulties. Alumni and oldsters are mourning the loss whereas organizing efforts to protect the varsity’s legacy.
NEW YORK— After a long time of serving households in Cambria Heights, Sacred Coronary heart Catholic Academy will shut on the finish of the 2025-2026 college yr, marking the tip of a long-term institution that educated generations of scholars within the southeast Queens neighborhood.
For a lot of households, Sacred Coronary heart was greater than a college. It was a spot the place religion, training, and group life flourished. Over time, the academy grew to become particularly necessary to immigrant households in southeast Queens, together with Haitian households who have been a part of the varsity group.
Cambria Heights has lengthy been dwelling to immigrant communities, including a significant Haitian population. The college itself is carefully tied to Sacred Heart Parish and the broader Catholic group inside the neighborhood.
The Diocese of Brooklyn introduced earlier this yr that Sacred Coronary heart Catholic Academy would shut, together with six different Catholic faculties throughout Brooklyn and Queens, citing declining enrollment and monetary challenges as contributing points.
The closure has sparked concern amongst households and parishioners who took to social media to honor the varsity’s legacy. For folks and alumni, the varsity represents years of shared reminiscences, from classroom classes to parish celebrations that introduced households collectively.
The Diocese says households affected by the closure will likely be supported in transitioning to different close by Catholic faculties. Sacred Coronary heart will stay open by way of the tip of the educational yr earlier than formally closing its doorways.
Some alumni and oldsters have additionally begun publicly organizing in response to the closure, together with sharing fundraising efforts on-line in an try to maintain the varsity open.
Alumna Leandrina Michel described the varsity’s impression as deeply private.
“Sacred Coronary heart Catholic Academy was by no means simply the varsity I attended from nursery by way of eighth grade; it was a second dwelling, a spot that helped form the very core of who I’m,” she mentioned.
“Rising up in a Haitian family, these years have been among the most formative of my life, and what made them so significant was the concord between the values my mother and father taught me at dwelling and those who have been nurtured inside the classroom. That consistency gave me a way of safety, objective, and id that has stayed with me ever since.”
Michel mentioned the varsity formed her not solely academically but additionally personally, educating her values corresponding to kindness, respect, self-discipline and religion. She mentioned she was supported by a close-knit group the place lecturers acknowledged her potential and the place she constructed friendships which have lasted greater than 30 years. These experiences, she mentioned, stay central to who she is immediately.
Michel mentioned the information of the closure has been troublesome to course of, particularly as she displays on what the varsity meant for future generations.
“It’s heartbreaking to know that future generations gained’t have the chance to stroll those self same halls, to expertise that very same sense of belonging,” she mentioned. “Sacred Coronary heart was a group, a basis, and a legacy.”
As she prepares for her son to start his personal training, Michel mentioned she hopes to discover a college that gives him the identical sense of belonging, steerage and powerful values that outlined her expertise at Sacred Coronary heart.
One other alumna, Mary Russel-Staco, mentioned the closure displays broader monetary challenges going through Catholic faculties.
“As an alumna of Sacred Coronary heart, it’s very disheartening to see the varsity I grew up in closing,” she mentioned. “It’s not in regards to the college students’ efficiency, it’s about funds. Catholic faculties don’t obtain authorities funding the way in which constitution faculties do, and that makes it troublesome to maintain them open.”
She added that the closure is unfair to the scholars, households, and employees who’ve lengthy supported the varsity
“It’s not honest to the scholars, mother and father, lecturers and employees who work very exhausting,” she mentioned.
For a lot of in Cambria Heights, Sacred Coronary heart Catholic Academy will stay a long-lasting contributor to the neighborhood’s historical past and id.