'It was like a home': Students, parents reeling from news of Bishop Connolly closure
FALL RIVER — Students at Bishop Connolly High School and their families are grappling with the sudden news that the Catholic school will shutter permanently in just a few months, after nearly 60 years in operation.
“Everybody was bawling their eyes out,” said Reganne Cooper, a freshman at the school. “I was devastated.”
The Catholic Diocese of Fall River announced on March 8 that Bishop Connolly High School will close for good at the end of the current school year. Continuously declining enrollment, the financial hardships of the pandemic and the current state of the economy mean operating the school has become unsustainable, the diocese said.
The school currently has an enrollment of 141 students, or approximately 35 students per grade.
For Reganne, moving from Fall River Public Schools to the small Catholic high school this year was a game changer. The smaller class sizes, more personal attention from staff and the tight-knit community she found there meant she felt more supported than she did in middle school, and her academics and mental health improved significantly in recent months.
“It was more welcoming. It was like a home,” she said.
What other Catholic schools can Connolly students attend?
Current students at Bishop Connolly will be offered admission at Bishop Stang High School in Dartmouth and Bishop Feehan High School in Attleboro. The diocese has said it will arrange transportation to those schools, and Bishop Connolly students will retain their current tuition and financial aid rates.
Still, staying within the Catholic schools will mean Fall River-area students will have to travel farther from home for school each day than they otherwise would. And they’d be joining much larger student bodies than their current school: Bishop Stang has around 500 students and Bishop Feehan has around 1,100.
Reganne’s mother, Kerren Merlino, said she and other parents would have been willing to contribute to fundraising efforts if they had known the school was in imminent danger of closing.
“Why didn’t they let the parents even try to save the school?” she asked.
Connolly students were notified of closure by email
Loryn Shea, whose son is a junior, said it wasn’t completely shocking that the school is closing given enrollment numbers, but that the suddenness of the news came as a surprise. She was also disappointed that students found out from an email that was sent to families at around the same time school was dismissed, rather than finding out in school.
“The students should have been told,” she said. “They’re the ones who are going to be most affected, along with the staff.”
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Now, she said, they aren’t sure if he will stay in the Catholic school system or go to their local public high school in Somerset.
“It’s all so last minute,” she said.
Losing out on the LEAP program
Cora Simone, a current senior at Bishop Connolly, also said the news of the closure came as a surprise; younger students were already registering for next year’s classes. She said she’s disheartened to think that future students will miss out on the opportunities the school offered her. She participated in their LEAP program, which allowed her to go straight to high school from seventh grade, something no other schools in the area offer.
Beyond the academic offerings, the school has a deeply supportive, welcoming atmosphere, she said.
“None of the schools in the area have as few students as we do and as close-knit a community as we do,” she said.
As a senior, she and her classmates have already spent months preparing to say goodbye to the school. But, it will be bittersweet to know that her graduate ceremony will be the school’s last.
“It makes me sad to know it’s coming to an end,” she said.
This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Students, parents reeling from news of Bishop Connolly closure
