Upper East Side Catholic School To Close in June

An Upper East Side Catholic school, facing a precipitous decline in enrollment, will close its doors in June, the Archdiocese of New York announced yesterday.

Despite recent efforts to market itself to neighborhood parents, St Francis de Sales Elementary School which serves students in kindergarten to eighth grade, has seen its student body dwindle to 207 students — down from 449 students in 2004, a spokesman for the archdiocese, Joseph Zwilling, said. He said the decision to close the school was reached by the parish, not by the archdiocese.

"We're always reluctant to close a school, but when a school loses more than half its student population in three years, that's a pretty strong indication that the school should be closed," he said, noting he did not know what caused the drop in enrollment.

St. Francis de Sales is located on East 97th Street, near Park Avenue.

Last year, the Archdiocese of New York shuttered nine schools in New York, and upstate as part of a major reorganization.