Diocese plans regional, community-based focus to preserve, enhance Catholic education

ALLENTOWN, Lehigh County – With the news of Trinity Academy’s closure and continued enrollment declines in other parochial schools in the coal region, the Diocese of Allentown is working to find a solution, and that could be in the communities they serve.

Bishop Alfred Schlert and leaders from the diocesan education department met with members of Catholic school boards, regional pastors, the diocesan Board of Education, and Catholic school principals to discuss the issue on April 27 at Marian High School, according to a media release.

The group plans to develop two regional school boards to operate the two parochial high schools — one for Marian and its associated elementary schools, and one for Nativity and its associated elementary schools — replacing the boards for each individual schools.

The school boards will be made up of community members and will begin meeting this summer to develop recommendations and seek input before final decisions are made and presented to the diocese.

Among the items boards could consider is how to use current and former buildings, use of other available buildings, and how to increase enrollment at the area’s Catholic schols.

Any recommendations adopted won’t take effect until the 2022-23 school year.

Enrollment, the diocese says, has declined be 30 percent in the past five years, and 70 percent since 2000.

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Kaylee Lindenmuth

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