St. Monica's New School Partner on the Merge

Shortly after the St. Monica Chruch and School community came together to pray at a church service Friday night in Berwyn, administrators and parents of St. Patrick met to discuss the news of the recommended merger of the two schools.

The Archdiocese will close St. Monica at the end of the current school year and merge it with St. Patrick's school in Malvern. The combined school will be at the current St. Patrick campus in Malvern.

Saint Patrick principal Patricia O'Donnell called the merger a mixed bag.

"I think that it’s going to provide a good opportunity to sustain Catholic education here in this area of Chester County," O'Donnell said. "There will definitely be growing pains, and pain and sadness involved, but I do think it can be a very exciting and life-giving time also."

These changes are part of a larger plan to close or consolidate schools in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. The full list of school closures was announced in a press conference Friday at 4 p.m.

According to O'Donnell, the school can handle the added enrollment; St. Patrick has a current enrollment of 270, but at one point had 525 students.

O'Donnell says the change will likely necessitate reductions in the combined school's new faculty, and the name of the school could also change.

The principal and pastor of St. Monica school and church will meet with Archdiocese officials next week to start to get questions answered and start working on the transition process.