After 62 Years, Catholic HS In Montco To Shut Down For Good

WYNCOTE, PA — Another long-standing private high school in Montgomery County is closings its doors for good due to the coronavirus pandemic's devastating economic impacts.

Wyncote's Bishop McDevitt High School is the Archdiocese of Philadelphia's latest casualty. Officials also announced the closure of Center City's Hallahan Catholic Girls High School this week.

“Today is one of great sadness,” Archbishop Nelson Pérez said in making the announcement. The closures will be effective at the end of the 2020-21 school year.

Pérez said that McDevitt was operating at 40 percent enrollment capacity, and that forecasting reports indicated that this number would continue to go down into the future. Furthermore, the number of families making tuition assistance requests were up 46 percent this year, causing a "severe strain," according to Pérez.

>>High School In Montco Forced To Permanently Close Due To Pandemic

"I have an obligation to ensure that each of our students is being provided with the best educational experience possible and that their teachers and coaches are provided with the resources to fulfill that mission," Pérez said. "Given circumstances, those resources were depleting rapidly and could not be restored."

McDevitt opened in 1958. Enrollment sat at around 450 entering the school year, with a yearly tuition of $9,170 for one child.

In recent weeks, several Montgomery County Catholic schools and institutions have been impacted by pandemic closures, including St. Basil's Academy in Jenkintown and St. Gabriel's school for troubled youth in Audubon.

>>Audubon's St. Gabriel's, School For At-Risk Youth, To Shut Down

"Today the McDevitt Family rises to a new challenge," the high school said in a statement released on social media Wednesday. "On campus we will endeavor to embrace the students, faculty, and staff who want nothing more than to learn, grow, and work on Royal Avenue. We will meet with all of them over the next two days and listen to their thoughts and emotions."

Officials said they would work with students at McDevitt to transition them into other high schools in "reasonable proximity." Teachers and staff will also be relocated where possible. It's unclear exactly how many will lose their jobs.