Lawrenceville's St. John Neumann will be 16th closing since 2005

Add another elementary school to the list of those that the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh has closed during the last five years.

The Rev. Kris Stubna, diocesan secretary of education, announced yesterday that St. John Neumann Regional Elementary School in Lawrenceville would close at the end of this academic year.

The school has supported three parishes: Our Lady of the Angels and St. Matthew in Lawrenceville, and St. Lawrence O'Toole in Garfield. The pastors of those parishes could not be reached for comment.

This will be the 16th elementary school that the diocese has shuttered since 2005.

St. John Neumann's operating deficit is projected to exceed $70,000, Stubna said.

"This has been a particularly challenging year because of the economy, and the impact the economy has had on smaller schools," Stubna said.

About 90 students were registered for next year, Stubna said. To support such a tiny enrollment, tuition would have had to rise significantly, he said.

"Pittsburgh overall faces a decline in the number of school-age children in public and private schools," Stubna said. "It's a serious concern as we move forward. It becomes harder to operate the same number of schools."

Although closing schools is a painful process, a benefit is that those students moving from a closing to school to another will make those schools remaining open that much stronger, Stubna said.

"Yes, we're losing some schools along the way, but we're trying to have viable schools in the long run."