Parents, Students Upset about OLPH School Closure

It hasn't been easy for Our Lady of Perpetual Help parents and students since learning Tuesday that the Catholic elementary in Lindenhurst was on the of the Diocese of Rockville Centre.

Of the parents who spoke with Lindenhurst Patch, it was clear they and their children were taking the news of the closing hard.

"It's just sad. I feel like I've lost a family member," said Laura, a parent of fifth-grader and Lindenhurst resident.

After learning of the news through an e-mail message from Principal Carmela Lubrano before leaving work on Tuesday, Laura scrambled to take a day off from work and made two appointments at two different Catholic schools.

She and her son were able to visit two area schools - Saint Martin of Tours School in Amityville and in in West Islip - on Wednesday, but it was with a heavy heart.

"I wanted to make sure he was on the list for another Catholic school, and though he'll be in sixth grade next year, I think it'll be better to continue on this path," said Laura, who has an older daughter who graduated from .

Like Laura and her son, Danielle Khanija and her daughter, a first-grader at , will be looking for another Catholic school. But Khanija said she heard that some other Catholic schools on Long Island might not have room.

"I've heard that, but I can't imagine that financially speaking they would turn any of us away, and they're all under the Diocese anyway," said Khanijia, a Lindenhurst resident who wants her daughter to stay in the Catholic school environment because of the structure and values that are taught.

"But [the news of the closure] is very upsetting," she said.

That story seemed to play out across the community: parents and students very shaken by the news, trying to pick up the pieces for their children who might not understand why they might have to be separated from their friends.

For example, Laura sat and talked with her son: "He asked me, 'Where are my friends going? I've been with them since I was four.' What do you say?"

Khanija told her daughter that it's about change, and that sometimes change is good. However, that doesn't always take away the pain.

"It's a tough pill to swallow. My daughter went there. My husband graduated from there. Everybody in our families has gotten married at the church, and many have been OLPH parishioners since the 1950s," Laura added.

"Being a parent of children at this school since 1999, I can honestly say the news hurts. We've seen first-hand the decline in enrollment, but thought the school had another couple of years left," Dave commented on Patch. His two older children graduated from the school while his youngest is in third grade.

Khanija explained that all of the parents did fight for the school to stay open.

"And we worked so hard, but the economy was a huge factor," Laura added. It made it harder to , and to get volunteers, but it never deterred parents.

"We were hoping they wouldn't close the school, and they could hold off at least until the 100th anniversary," Khanija said.

Indeed, when the school closes it'll be one year shy of it's 100-year anniversary, so it - along with the 140-year-old - has been a fixture in the heart of the Village for decades.

The news of the impending closure prompted many residents who've graduated from or had religious instruction through OLPH, or have been parishioners at the church, to take to Patch, Facebook and Twitter to many of the same sentinments as the parents and children.

Khanija summed up the overall feeling: "Now we're being ripped out of Lindenhurst. And I'm shocked because it's been such a staple of the town. I don't what's going to happen to the church, too, now that the school is closing."

But as upset as they all are about the news the only thing to do now is move forward.

"Whatever the reasoning is, we don't know. We just have to make the best of it now," Khanija said. "I just hope that the school has an assembly for the kids so that the kids could ask questions, and they could understand what's happening."