St. Anthony Academy to close
Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published March 24, 2006
Detroit – Plans to close St. Anthony Academy, Belleville, at the end of the current school year in June were announced last Friday.
A letter notifying parents of the kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school in western Wayne County was mailed the day before the announcement.
St. Anthony Academy had suffered declining enrollment and mounting debt in recent years.
Built in the mid-1950s, it had 360 students in 1956. Current enrollment is down to 121, and the school is carrying a debt of $560,000, according to the archdiocesan Communications Department.
Fr. Thomas Cusick, pastor of St. Anthony Parish, recently presented a report on the school's situation and a request to close it to Cardinal Adam Maida and the archdiocesan College of Consultors. Reluctantly, Cardinal Maida and the consultors agreed with the recommendations.
The College of Consultors is an advisory body, whose priest members advise the cardinal on issues relating to the use of church property.
In his message printed in the parish bulletin and posted on the school's Internet site, www.stanth.com, Fr. Cusick called the weeks in which he and other parish and school leaders wrestled with the decision "some of the most difficult of my priesthood."
Speaking of a meeting in which he and Principal Stephanie Tozer, along with other parish and school representatives, met with an archdiocesan financial oversight committee, he said, "After intense discussion it became clear to everyone present that the parish is no longer able to fund the academy. And so, our school will have to close at the end of this term."
Fr. Cusick added, "This is very sad and words do not come easily to talk about it."
He said Cardinal Maida had "expressed his gratitude to our principal, and to all who have worked so hard to keep things going as long as we could."
"No one wants this to happen. And there is no one who is not grieving over this loss to our parish family," Fr. Cusick added.
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