Friday, September 25, 2015

St. Joseph, Bathgate Avenue

Once again, David Gonzalez has written for the New York Times a magnificent article about Bronx Catholics.  Please see the link HERE.
---
He writes about St. Joseph's parish, Bathgate Avenue, which was merged with the parish of St. Simon Stock on August 1, 2015.  He writes of the parishioners, the Carmelite pastor, and the Mexican religious Sisters who help maintain contact with the Catholic Christians of the neighborhood.  Angel Franco has provided sharp, telling photographs.
---
In addition to reading the above article, please also look at my 2009 post:
http://bronxcatholic.blogspot.com/2009/08/st-joseph-bathgate-ave-tremont.html


Thursday, September 10, 2015

Elementary school statistics

With the recent publication of the 2015 Official Catholic Directory, it is possible to look at some statistics of the Catholic elementary schools in The Bronx. Please realize that the data was probably collected more than a year ago, and some of the numbers may include pre-kindergarten enrollment.  Also, fourteen of the forty-four schools are listed with the same exact enrollment three years running, unlikely, and therefore suspect. The forty-four schools open in September, 2015, are listed in the directory as having 15,590 students.  The 2012 directory listed 17,380.
---
The following analysis ignores schools with suspect numbers.  The five elementary schools with the highest enrollments are St. Raymond (given as 925), Immaculate Melrose (515), Santa Maria (500), St. Lucy (498), and Sacred Heart (456).  At the median are Holy Family (340), St. Francis Xavier (320), and St. Athanasius (315). Lowest numbers were St. Simon Stock (210), St. Nicholas of Tolentine (200), and St. Thomas Aquinas (180).  
---
Also, please see the official websites:
http://buildboldfutures.org/regions/northeast-east-bronx/
and
http://buildboldfutures.org/regions/northwest-south-bronx/
---
According to the above links, the total number of elementary school students in The Bronx is 14,145, probably a more accurate figure than the OCD totals.