Prince of Peace Regional School to Close in June

will shut its doors next June, a victim of declining enrollment at Catholic schools.

The Diocese of Rockville Centre announced Tuesday that it would close six of its 53 elementary schools on Long Island at the end of the 2011-12 school year.

In a note on the school's website Tuesday, Prince of Peace Principal Jane F. Harrigan said she was delivering the news of the school closing "with a heavy heart."

"Please know that the faculty and staff are here to support you during this time and will do our best to make the remainder of this school year a memorable one for your child," Harrigan wrote. "We assure you that we will make the transition to another Catholic school in the fall of 2012 as smooth and positive as possible."

The other schools to close on the island are St. John Baptist de La Salle Regional School (Farmingdale), St. Catherine of Sienna School (Franklin Square), St. Ignatius Loyola School (Hicksville), Sacred Heart School (North Merrick) and Our Lady of Perpetual Help School (Lindenhurst).

Along with the aforementioned schools, Diocese of Rockville Centre Bishop William Murphy said he has asked five schools, three in Suffolk County and two in Nassau County, to form a "strategic collaboration." It wasn't clear what that collaboration would include.  

The remaining 42 schools will remain open next year.

The decision to close the six schools was arrived at for various reasons, including what Murphy described as "changing demographics and difficult national and local economic conditions."

Murphy also said that his Bishop’s Advisory Committee on Catholic Education completed a thorough evaluation of each of the elementary schools on Long Island. The evaluation took into account enrollment and school age demographic trends, the financial position of schools and parishes, and a review of the facilities, technology and programs offered.

"Given the decline in school-age population and the economic climate on Long Island we, like many public school districts, must face the harsh reality that we no longer need as many school buildings as we may have had in the past," Murphy said.