The organization sent surveys to parents, asking their thoughts on replacing Lansdale Catholic.

By Pamela Batzel

THE INTELLIGENCER

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia is considering building a school in Hilltown to replace Lansdale Catholic.

On Friday, the archdiocese mailed thousands of surveys to the homes of parents whose children attend Catholic schools in grades three through six and live win a 10-mile radius of the site where the school would be located.

The 63-acre property, purchased in late 2001 for $1.7 million, is located on Route 152, West Creamery Road and Rickert Road.

Population and enrollment studies indicate there is a need for the school, but it’s important to find out if parents will send their children, said Joanne McHugh, a 1984 Lansdale Catholic graduate and member of a planning committee studying the possibility since November.

“On paper, this makes a lot of sense.  The last piece of the puzzle is to get the parents input for the survey,” she said.         

“The archdiocese is not going to do anything until they get input from parents.”

Studies show that the population in Central and Upper Bucks has been increasing and will continue to rise, McHugh said.  Already, the number of Catholics in those areas increased 13 percent between 2000 and 2004, climbing by 3,696 to 32,764, according to the archdiocese’s Web site.

State and regional studies also indicate that growth will continue, McHugh said.  The Central Bucks School District’s enrollment, for example, is expected to grow 28 percent from 2004 to 2014, according to state education department figures, she said.

Growth in the North Penn area of Montgomery County has continued, too.  Catholic families there increased 5 percent, or by 3,170 for a total 62,836 from 2000 to 2004, according to the archdiocese.

But Bucks County’s growth indicates it makes sense to build in Hilltown, McHugh said.

That would place the school within 10 miles of Palisades, Pennridge and Quakertown and require those districts to provide its students transportation to the Catholic school.

Lansdale Catholic currently has 112 Pennridge, 20 Quakertown and seven Palisades students, said Rev. Joseph Maloney, president of Lansdale Catholic.  “There has been a growing interest.”

For example, at Saint Agnes-Sacred Heart, a combined elementary school for parishes in Hilltown and Sellersville, 40 of its 44 eighth-graders will attend Lansdale Catholic.

If the new high school is built in Hilltown, the archdiocese would offer van service to students outside of 10 miles, including those who used to get public school transportation because they were within 10 miles of Lansdale Catholic, he said.

McHugh said there would be other advantages to moving the school to Hilltown.  The campus would be nearly double in size from Lansdale’s 33 acres.  The extra space would allow for more athletic fields, officials said.

Still, Maloney cautioned that the archdiocese has not made any decisions.  “There’s nothing in stone yet.  The survey is to judge the interest,” he said.  The archdiocese wants to ensure the new school would enroll at least 1,200.

About 850 students will attend Lansdale Catholic this year.  That is up from 792.  A few years ago enrollment reached 900, said Jim Casey, a spokesman for the school.  The average enrollment for the past five years is about 830, he said.  The school can handle 960 to 1000 students.

The archdiocese has no cost estimate for a new school, but it spent $36 million to build Bishop Shanahan in Chester County in 1998.

Not everyone thinks Lansdale Catholic should be relocated.

Mike McMonagle, a parent of a Lansdale Catholic student, said he doesn’t think enrollment will increase enough to justify building a new school, which will drive up the cost of tuition.

He has seen Catholic families being “priced out” of a Catholic education, he said.  This year, Catholic students attending its 20 high schools will pay $4,380.  Non-Catholics will pay $5,320.  McMonagle fears a new school would drive tuition up $2,000.  Officials said it’s too soon to say how much new construction would raise rates.

The archdiocese is also sending surveys to parents of parochial school students who live within 10 miles of a proposed school near Royersford in western Montgomery County.  That school would replace Catholic high schools in Pottstown and Norristown, which are too small to handle expected growth, according to the archdiocese.  In all, 10,000 surveys will be sent to parents living within 10 miles of the Royersford and Hilltown sites.

McHugh said the archdiocese hopes to have survey results by mid-September.  The archdiocese’s Office of Catholic Education will review the results with Bishop Joseph P. McFadden, who oversees Catholic education in the Archdiocese, to make a recommendation to Cardinal Justin Rigali, she said.