By ANDREA POTEET
Sunday Times Newspapers
WYANDOTTE — Two Catholic schools in the city will close at the end of the year due to declining enrollment.
Wyandotte-based Our Lady of Mount Carmel Elementary School and Wyandotte Catholic Consolidated schools will close and consolidate with Good Shepherd School in Lincoln Park at the end of the year.
The Good Shepherd campus will reopen in August as John Paul II School. Our Lady of Mount Carmel High School will not be affected by the merger.
The school will be sponsored by four local parishes: Christ the Good Shepherd, Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St. Joseph and St. Patrick in Wyandotte.
Joe Kohn, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Detroit, said the merger had been discussed for many years but was decided upon in early 2010. All schools had seen declining enrollment and were operating at a deficit, requiring subsidies from their parishes, Kohn said. The combined enrollment of the schools is 326, with 135 at Christ the Good Shepherd, 103 at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Elementary, and 88 at Wyandotte Catholic Consolidated.
“These schools are sponsored by four parishes that all find themselves in the same boat,” Kohn said, “so it made sense to come together and cooperate to form a regional school.”
Parents were alerted to the merger by a letter sent out in late September, and a town hall meeting was held regarding the change in early October, Kohn said.
The Good Shepherd school was chosen as the location for the new consolidated school because of its size and newer facilities, he said.
“If we’re so blessed to have 600 students, that school could handle that size of a student body,” Kohn said.
Good Shepherd’s principal, Mariann Lupinacci, will be principal of Pope John Paul II.
A committee comprising members of all involved parishes are planning details including tuition, staffing and transportation.