Blessed Sacrament school in Natrona Heights to be closed by Pittsburgh Diocese

Families, students and teachers at Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament School in Natrona Heights on Friday reacted with sadness and disappointment upon hearing that the 66-year-old Catholic elementary school is shutting its doors.

“It’s hard for my brain to even function right now,” said Alyssa Imler, a teacher at the Harrison school since 2003. “I just can’t even describe how special it was.”

The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh said the closure, effective June 30, is due to budget constraints brought on by the covid-19 pandemic. The Diocese is also closing Saint Patrick School in Canonsburg.

In addition, Saint Joseph Elementary School in Verona and Saint John the Baptist School in Plum will be merged July 1.

“I know this news deeply impacts the hearts of our principals, teachers, school families, and other supporters of Catholic education. It impacts mine as well,” Bishop David Zubik said in a statement. “Schools are not just buildings. They represent communities that provide important faith formation for our children.”

Parents and teachers at the school had been bracing for bad news, but remained hopeful the Diocese could offset several years of declining enrollment and, most recently, the pandemic’s unexpected impact.

For Imler, who was a middle school homeroom teacher for more than a decade and a fourth-grade teacher for six years, the closing affects her entire family. Her daughter was preparing for sixth grade at the school and her son is enrolled in a vocational program for students with intellectual disabilities.

“It’s our family,” she said through tears. “It’s like a death.”

In a letter to families, faculty and staff, the Rev. Kris Stubna, president of the Board of Pittsburgh-East Regional Catholic Elementary Schools, said the parish debt continues to grow as enrollment at the school declines. At the end of March, the debt was around $640,000 , with school debt totaling another $440,000.

Blessed Sacrament had only students 85 registered for next school year. The school projected to need about $440,000 in subsidy for the current school year with 110 students. With even fewer students in 2020-21, Stubna wrote, the subsidy needed would go up to about $550,000. After expenses last year, the parish only had about $32,000 remaining for a school subsidy.

“There really is no reasonable solution to the funding problem given its magnitude other than closure,” Stubna wrote.

Jessica DePascale, of Brackenridge, a Blessed Sacrament alumna whose daughter now attends, said it was like the school was “backed into a corner.”

The school, which opened in 1954, is full of families like DePascale’s, who have attended for multiple generations. The school’s current principal, William Heasley, was a student from 1956 to 1962.

DePascale thought about how her sister and many of her friends all grew up in the halls.

“Everything I have now is part of that, and that investment that my parents made,” she said.

In the Alle-Kiski Valley, the school has a reputation for building community – supplying volunteers, putting on summer festivals, orchestrating fundraisers.

“It becomes so ingrained in your life,” said Jim Bloch, of Natrona Heights, another member of a multi-generation Blessed Sacrament family. “The school activities, the fundraisers, everyone working toward a common goal. When you’re working with people like that, I think you just tend to develop a bond with those people and they’re always important to you.”

Bloch has two daughters preparing to enter sixth and eighth grades, both of whom, he said, were upset by the news. The family is trying to make plans for the fall, figuring out where they will attend school.

In a news release, the diocese said families affected by the closures are being encouraged and assisted in relocating to nearby Catholic schools.

Bloch said he would like for his daughters to stay in Catholic schools, but he wonders if it’s even possible, logistically. He’s waiting for more information about available busing and the St. Joseph’s-St. John the Baptist merger.

“We knew there was no other school for Blessed Sacrament to merge with,” he said. “We’re out on an island.”

Figuring out what comes next

All schools in the diocese have been challenged by the pandemic, diocesan leaders said in a news release. A Covid-19 Educational Planning Team has been formed to research, strategize and plan best practices for schools to reopen in August. The diocese also announced it will establish South Regional Catholic Elementary School, Inc., with a governing board of clergy and lay leaders to ensure schools are properly resourced and sustainable in the future.

“COVID-19 completely changed education on a global level in a matter of weeks,” said Michelle Peduto, director of Catholic Schools, in a statement. “I am so proud of the way our principals, teachers, students, and parents leapt into action to support the transition to distance learning when schools throughout the state were closed amid fears of the spread of the virus.”

For everyone in the Blessed Sacrament community, the next steps are still unclear. Most are still trying to process the news.

Imler, who taught seventh-grade language arts and social studies last year, said she hopes this experience is just God’s plan, and there will be other opportunities for everyone in the school community.

“I have to try and think that way,” she said. “Or I’ll just cry and cry and cry.”