St. Ephrem School Saved from Merger

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced today that Archbishop Charles Chaput has reviewed and accepted the recommendations regarding elementary schools from the Review Committees assigned to hear appeals to the school restructuring outlined by the Blue Ribbon Commission.

The Archdiocese reversed its decision to merge St. Mark school, Bristol, with , Bensalem, at the Bensalem site.

Both schools will now remain parish schools.

The Commission website said St. Ephrem’s current enrollment is at 80 percent.

Click here for the final decision on other elementary school appeals.

According to a release, the decisions on high school appeals have been postponed until next week.

The postponement is due to recently received information regarding potential donors that has to be explored before any decision is made.  

“I recognize how anxious all of those affected by this decision are to hear the final outcome,” the Archbishop said. “I want to see this resolved too but this decision is too important to be made without considering absolutely every fact and all serious, substantive proposals even if they don’t fit the time frame originally set.  We owe it to our teachers, administrators, students and school families.”

In February 2011, the parish school in Bensalem and six others in the region closed were marked for closure last June.