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St. Peter’s Regional School in Liberty will remain open and make a transition from a pre-K through fourth-grade school to a pre-K through kindergarten early childhood center beginning this fall.
“Catholic education is a crucial component of the archdiocese’s spiritual and pastoral mission throughout our state; therefore we understood how critical it was to do everything in our power to keep St. Peter’s open for our families,” said Dr. Timothy McNiff, superintendent of schools for the archdiocese.
“After careful consideration, and in light of the persistent demand for pre-K-kindergarten education in the area,” he continued, “we have formulated a plan to maintain St. Peter’s Regional as an early childhood center.”
He said his office will work with families “to shepherd them through this transition” and will continue to provide guidance for the first through fourt- grade families as they move to Our Lady of Mount Carmel School in Middletown, a distance of about 38 miles, and to other local schools.
In February, the archdiocese announced that St. Peter’s would cease operations at the end of the current school year. The school has seen a decline in enrollment in recent years and had, consequently, went in 2009 from a full-service elementary school to a pre-K to fourth-grade school.
“We understood how crucial it was to do everything in our power to keep St. Peter’s open for our families, especially as the only Catholic school in Sullivan County,” said Nick Iacono, a spokesman for the Office of the Superintendent of Schools. The office, he added, “undertook additional budgetary analysis after the February announcement and was able to craft a plan to maintain the school as an early childhood center.”
Additional information and resources will be shared with families in the coming days.
