By Brian Zanzonico
Longtime Principal Diane Staudinger will be replaced by Kellenberg teacher Bryan Finn, who will be supervised by Kellenberg Principal Brother Kenneth Hoagland.
With Catholic schools across Long Island continuing to close at an alarming rate ‹ including St. Boniface in Elmont in 2004 ‹ Monsignor Thomas Groenewold said in a statement that the track record of the Marianists, a Roman Catholic religious order of priests and brothers founded in 1817 to run Catholic schools, led him to the decision.
³To survive in the present climate challenging Catholic schools, and to make a long-term commitment to our parents that our school would remain solid, I turned to the Marianist Community to lend their expertise to our school,² Groenewold said in a statement. ³Every school with which the Marianists have worked has become successful.²
St. Martin de Porres School in Uniondale, which nearly closed in the early 1990s, had the same enrollment issues as St. Catherine¹s does now, which prompted Murphy to ask the Marianists to assume control of the school, Hoagland said. Since then, St. Martin¹s has thrived, he said. Diocese spokesman Sean Dolan said Groenewold has turned to the Marianists to do the same at St. Catherine¹s.
³The school had certain financial and enrollment issues,² Dolan said. ³The pastor believes this is an opportunity to help the school.²
Dolan said the Marianists and St. Catherine¹s clergy have been discussing ways to increase the student body, but no plans are in place. ³If we have to lower tuition to get increased enrollment, we¹ll do that,² Dolan said. ³But no decision has been made.²
Dolan said that in the current school year, the cost of tuition at St. Catherine¹s for one student who lives in the parish district is $3,760 (or $6,020 for two children). The tuition for one student who lives beyond the parish¹s district is $5,250 (or $7,520 for two children).
Said Hoagland, ³Finances are a point of concern for the school, with declining enrollment. ... We hope to improve enrollment.²
He said that Finn would take over for Staudinger in June, and that the shakeup may not be over. Hoagland said that interviews are continuing with current St. Catherine teachers. When the Marianists took over operations at St. Martin¹s in 2004, teachers from Kellenberg joined the elementary school¹s faculty.
Staudinger, who has been St. Catherine¹s principal the past 15 years, said she was notified in February that she would not be returning after the 2005-06 school year. ³I¹m factored out,² she said. ³I¹m not connected with the school any longer. But at this point, it is my hope that the Marianists can keep St. Catherine¹s alive. I will miss the families and parish.²
And families will miss her. As she waited to pick up her daughter outside the school last week, one parent called Staudinger¹s dismissal unfair. ³She has been here for more than a decade and done an outstanding job,² the parent said, requesting anonymity. ³The drop-off in enrollment is not her fault. There¹s no loyalty.²
Said another parent, ³They¹re just making her the scapegoat.²
New faces
Finn has been a religion and social studies teacher at Kellenberg for the last 10 years, Hoagland said. Outside Kellenberg last week, students described Finn as a ³hilarious teacher² with a knack for using funny but poignant anecdotes in his lessons.
Hoagland made national headlines last year when he chose to cancel the class of 2006¹s senior prom, decrying the gala as an object-oriented night of excess, with expensive dresses, lavish after-prom getaways and underage drinking. The prom, he said, has become an excuse for promiscuity. In a letter to parents in March 2005, Hoagland wrote ³The prom has become a sexual focal point. This is supposed to be a dance, not a honeymoon.² Chaminade High School canceled its 2006 prom months later. Earlier this month, Hoagland announced that there would be an informal ring dance for seniors this year ‹ with no evening wear allowed.
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