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Co-op City Times / January 26, 2013
2nd Combing ty p Cinext Blood Co-oDrive Blood drive today in Dreiser Center To help combat the perennial midwinter blood shortage throughout the Tri-State area, Church of the Savior, in collaboration with the American Red Cross, is hosting a blood drive in Room 4 of Dreiser Community Center from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today, Saturday, January 26th. All people 8 and older are eligible to donate a pint which will be used to help offset a current shortage of blood in area hospitals. For more information about the event, call Rev. Robert A. Smith, Jr., Pastor of Church of the Savior, at 718-320-0002, or 917-734-4058.
NCNW’s annual Youth Celebration coming in February In commemoration of Black History, the Co-op City NCNW will host their 12th Annual Youth Celebration on Saturday, February 23, 1-4 p.m. in the Dreiser Auditorium, co-sponsored by the Riverbay Corporation. Youth and youth groups that would like to showcase their talent in song, dance, poetry, music or theatrical presentation at the celebration, should contact the NCNW’s Youth Committee Chairpersons: Lori Melton, (917) 399-2643, or Michelle S. Davey, (917) 292-2397.
FRONT PA G E
St. Mary Star of the Sea School to close in June BY BILL STUTTIG Approximately 200 Co-op City grade school students are going to be forced to find a new school to attend next September as the Catholic Archdiocese of New York announced on Tuesday that St. Mary Star of the Sea School on City Island is one of 24 at-risk schools which will be closed in June. The announcement came as a bitter disappointment to parents whose children attend the school and who fought hard over the last two months to raise funds to keep the school a financially viable operation. The school’s parent organization, St. Mary Star of the Sea Home and School Association (SMSSHSA) hosted a massive, all-day fundraiser in the school gymnasium on December 29th in hopes of raising enough money to convince Archdiocese officials that the school could become financially viable and independent for a three-year period. Greg Clancy, the Parent Appeal Coordinator for the SMSSHSA, joined the parish’s pastor, Father Michael Challinor, and school administrators in making an appeal as to the school’s future financial viability before an Archdiocese reconfiguration committee on January 3rd. Clancy said that he and the others presented proof that the school had a balanced budget and was financially viable for the next three years. “But then they asked, ‘What about year four’ and right then I thought they were being disingenuous and they never had any real intention of giving us a chance,” Clancy said.
“I am angry with the way everything has gone down. The way they did things is really ugly.” Clancy charged that not only is the Archdiocese shutting down the school, but they are asking that the parish repay $750,000 in subsidies that they gave to the school for operations over the past two years with 5% interest tacked on. Clancy said that the parish plans to fight the Archdiocese’s attempt to take back the already-spent subsidies. Even though St. Mary Star of the Sea School is located on City Island, approximately 80% of the student body of the small, but beloved, school comes from Co-op City. The school is accessible to Co-op City children via a 15-minute ride on the Bx. 29 bus which directly links Co-op City to City Island. “St. Mary is a small but wonderful school,” Section 5 resident Kaisha Lopez said in December while involved in efforts to try and save the school. Lopez, who sends her daughter to kindergarten there, said: “It is truly a colorblind school because there is a great mix of ethnicity among the students who attend and the families that get involved. It is a school that is worth saving because it is good and it is safe and very highly regarded among the parents from Co-op City like me who choose to send their children there.” Ever since the Catholic Archdiocese of New York announced they were seriously considering closing St. Mary, the parents of St. Mary School, together with some parishioners from St. Mary Star of the Sea Church, ran a campaign to raise
the funds to convince the Archdiocese’s Reconfiguration Committee that the school can be financially viable. The Archdiocese said that they were requiring schools to prove that they can be financially independent and solvent for the next three years. Clancy, who coordinated the fundraising effort, said that those efforts helped the school overcome a $300,000 shortfall. Clancy said that the school received $125,000 from a donor who asked to remain anonymous and raised the additional needed funds in December through the fundraiser on December 29th and appeals posted on both Facebook and Youtube. Clancy added that the SMSSHSA plans to return the money to the donors because the school is apparently not being saved. The funds remain in a parish bank account, Clancy said. Aside from St. Mary Star of the Sea School, 21 other elementary schools operated by the Catholic Archdiocese will be closed at the end of the school year in June, including six others in the Bronx: Holy Spirit; Our Lady of Angels; Our Lady of Mercy; St. Jerome; Blessed Sacrament and St. Anthony. Two high schools are being closed by the Archdiocese as well: St. Agnes Boys High School in Manhattan and Blessed Sacrament High School in nearby New Rochelle. The closing of the 22 elementary schools affects 4341 or 9% of the total student body of the Archdiocese. (Continued on page 5)
Next CB#10 Meeting The next Community Board #10 meeting will be held on Thursday, February 21 at 7:30 p.m., at the Westchester Square Civic Association, 2513 E. Tremont Avenue, Bronx, N.Y. 10461. Please make every effort to attend. For further information, please call contact Community Board 10 at (718) 892-1161.
Black History Month Film Festival The African American Association presents the Gullah Film Festival in celebration of Black History Month, on Saturday, February 2, 12:00 p.m., Bartow Center, Room 28. Bring your family and friends. Featured presentations are “God’s Gonna Trouble the Water” and “Family Across the Sea.” For more information, please call (718) 379-3494.
Riverbay employees saluted for perfect attendance At a luncheon held on Thursday, January 17th, one hundred Riverbay employees from management and administrative positions were recognized for having perfect attendance during 2012. Helping to honor the dedicated employees were General Manager Vernon Cooper, and Human Resources/Risk Management Director Ron Caesar. The perfect attendees honored were: Alberta Abrams, Mary Ahland, Michael David Ambo, Frank Apollo, Pamela Apollo, Katherine Bell, Richard Bell, Ismael Bermudez, David Best, Pedro Jose Bisono, Amarulis Bizardi, Betsy Boiko, Eunice M. Johnson Braithwaite, Claudia Budnitskiy, Chris Bulat; Ronald Caesar; Marlece CalderonChiaramida, Elmo Jones Cannegeiter, Hugo Castillo, Sherron L. Clarke, Raymond Cooper, Josue Coronel, Heriberto Diaz, Kenneth Duchnowski, Agim Duma, Margaret Echevarria, Noel A. Ellison, Kimberly Engrassia, Joyce Alto Epps, Jessica Felice, Lenya Renee Garcia, Jacqueline Garcia Quinones, Arnold Hughes, Nurissa Jacqueline James Cox, Theodore James Jefferson, Rafet Kalic, Hasan Karim, Toma Kastrati, Kevin James Keenan, Raymond Francis Kenny, John Key, Tamira King, Alexsandar Knezevic, Leka Kocovic, Vasilj Kocovic, Lynn S. Krantz, Larisa Lipovetskaya, Luis A. Lopez, Louis Loscalzo Jr., Gail Mallea-Ragin, Anginet Martinez, Orlando Martinez, Theresa Mayunda Mavinga, Alisa McCluney, James Melendez, Peter Merola, Peter P. Miranda, Warren Mitchell, Edwin J. Mulero, Michael J. Munns, Trenise Myrie, Hector Navarez, Janine Adele Nelson, Juanita Net, Obed Ortiz, Osbourne Lloyd Pearson, Dindyal Persaud, Rosalind A. Pierce, Donovan Plummer, Alan B. Poretsky, Linda Pujols, Julio Ramirez, Anthony Rasulo, Kendall Shawn Ravenelle, Marsha Natalie Rhule-Allen, Daniel Rivera, Monica Robinson, David Rodriguez, Pedro Rosario, Steve Robert Lee Rudolph, Michelle Andree Sajous, Louis Salegna, Richard W. Schmidt, Carolyn Sinkler, David Stone, Mohamed Suleman, Sita Suleman, Shenese L. Talton, Robert C. Tausch, Obed Torres, Frankie Torres, Andrea Tuberman, Kim Marie Umstead, Alexander Vargas, Aracelis Vega, Anthony Warner, Linda Elaine Williams, Kirk Williams, Paul Zadrima, and Liviu Zalman. Photo by Bill Stuttig