When Bill Linkenheimer Jr., 72, of Ross, graduated in 1951, North Catholic High School was a thriving all-male school with 1,200 students.
By the time his son, Bill Linkenheimer III, earned his diploma in 1985 from the Troy Hill school, enrollment had dropped to less than 900 girls and boys.
"Even now, in business, you meet many people who have graduated from North Catholic," said Bill Linkenheimer Jr. "There is a great network of graduates. I got a very good education and good Christian background."
With enrollment down to 340 students, the Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese is considering moving the school that opened in 1939.
"The real problem that's facing us is the decline in students in the City of Pittsburgh," said the Rev. Kris Stubna, secretary of education for the diocese. "It's really devastating. There just aren't enough students."
The diocese last summer hired Field Development Consultants, of Powell, Ohio, to study the feasibility of moving North Catholic to Cranberry or Mars. They researched the demographics of the area and conducted focus groups to determine whether sufficient demand for a Catholic high school exists.
School administrators are working with the consultants on a recommendation for the diocese, said North Catholic President Frank Orga. The recommendation could be presented in mid-January, he said.
Orga said initial results of focus groups conducted with parish members of St. Ferdinand in Cranberry, St. Kilian in Mars and St. Paul in Butler were encouraging. Participants indicated they were interested in seeing a Catholic high school in the neighborhood, and they would likely donate money for a new school building, he said.
Moving North Catholic would cost $20 to $25 million, Orga said, including construction costs for a building to house 750 to 1,500 students. Raising the money would take two or three years, and any possible move would be at least five years away, he said.
North Catholic has traditionally drawn students from the northern corridor because there isn't a Catholic high school that serves that area, Stubna said.
Cranberry is third in the number of students it sends to North Catholic, behind Shaler and the North Side, Orga said.
"More and more of our alumni and parents are saying to us, 'We'd really like to send our children to a Catholic high school, but we can't get there. It's too far to travel,' " Stubna said.
A year at North Catholic costs $6,500 for Catholic students and $7,200 for non-Catholics.
In the meantime, the diocese is trying to halt the decline in enrollment by raising funds for scholarships and increasing community awareness.
"We just took it for granted that people knew how good Catholic schools are," Stubna said.
