We did not succeed in saving St. John the Baptist School, Pittston, PA, a Catholic elementary (private, parochial) school which had been in existence since 1917.
We did not succeed in saving St. Mary's School, Avoca, PA, a Catholic private, parochial elementary school which had been in existence since 1919.
We fought long and hard, but the schools - 288 students - were separated from some of their lifelong classmates. No merger was allowed or even considered by the Diocese of Scranton's Bishop Joseph F. Martino, who had only come to the Scranton area 5 months prior from Philadelphia, PA.
Our mission now is to make sure this never happens again...the children must come first.
UPDATE MAY 2007: It happened again. Bishop Joseph F. Martino proved to us that his objective all along was NOT to strengthen and preserve the Catholic schools in the Pittston area, but simply to weaken them to justify the closing of more.
Seton Catholic High School in Pittston, which has been a source of fine Catholic education for over 140 years, will close its doors in June 2007.
Sacred Heart of Jesus Dupont, a fine elementary school which is over 80 years old, will close its doors in June 2007.
SO WILL SEVERAL OTHER SCHOOLS IN HAZELTON, OLD FORGE, WILKES-BARRE, SCRANTON, LUZERNE, and on and on.
FOUR HIGH SCHOOLS WILL COMBINE TO ONE....Bishop Martino, you have let us down and let the children down.
CLICK HERE to enter our new site...
Remember to refresh your bookmark, as well.
We have upgraded our data transfer to accommodate our many, many visitors.
Thank you for your patience.
Copyright 2004 by LeaveNoCatholicStudentBehind.com Committee All Rights reserved
The new site is free of banner ads, pop-ups, etc!