Sunday, November 24, 2019

Superintendent of Schools Michael Deegan

Since September, 2019, the Superintendent of the Schools of the Archdiocese of New York has been Michael J. Deegan.

Bronx CCD or religious education

Fifty-five Bronx parishes reported enrollment numbers for their religious education classes to the Official Catholic Directory 2019. However, about half the numbers were exact repeats of older numbers, therefore incredible.
Using such poor data, I counted 10,492 in parish religious ed programs, in addition to the 12,883 enrolled in Catholic elementary schools.
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The five programs reporting the largest enrollment with reliable numbers were St. Barnabas (590 plus school), St. Joan of Arc (439, no school, a parish serving the Bronx River Houses on East 174th Street). St. Lucy (318 plus school), St. Nicholas of Tolentine (296), and Immaculate Conception Melrose (285, plus school). The median parish enrollment was 163 at St. Athanasius. The five lowest religious ed enrollments were at Nativity of Our Blessed Lady, Dyer Avenue (25 plus school, in a parish the archbishop attempted to close in 2015), 31 at St. Michael in vast Co-op City (43,700 residents), 34 at Sts. Philip and James, 36 at St. John Nam, 40 at Our Lady of Grace (plus school).

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Bronx elementary school statistics

The Bethpage NY public library has just purchased a copy of the Official Catholic Directory 2019. This analysis is based on the figures reported to the OCD, with two caveats. Some figures are unreliable, as the same enrollment appears yearly, and is obviously not updated. Also, if the enrollment numbers are bloated by Pre-K 3 and Universal Pre-Kindergarten, city-funded programs, I have yet to learn how many students are being added to the enrollment. Thirty-one of thirty-nine Catholic elementary schools participate, so there is a chance the bloat averages out.
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When the count was made (now two years stale?), there were about 12,883 students in the Bronx Catholic elementary schools. The top five schools were St. Raymond (802), Immaculate Conception Melrose (510), St.  Lucy (480), St. Theresa (471) and St. Clare of Assisi (466). The median was St. John Chrysostom at 319.
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The lowest enrollments were at St. Thomas Aquinas (188), Nativity of Our Blessed Lady, Dyer Avenue (194), Sts. Philip and James (225 pupils, on East 213th Street near Boston Road), St. Luke, East 139th Street (232), and St. Margaret Mary (234).