Waterbury’s Sacred Heart High School Announces Permanent Closure

Wow. That's the only word that I can come up with as the news broke that one of the bigger remaining Catholic High Schools here in Connecticut is going to be closing at the end of the current school year.

According to multiple reports, including WFSB.com and Rep-AM.com, it was announced today that Waterbury's Sacred Heart High School will permanently close at the end of this current school year. According to the reports, the decision to close comes after a Monday meeting between members of the Archdiocese and the Sacred Heart Board of Directors. The closure is due to declining enrollment.

What makes this action profoundly sad? Sacred Heart is 1 year shy of their 100 year anniversary. The school was founded in 1922. According to NBC Connecticut, administrators and the archdiocese are working on options to allow current upperclassmen to finish their education at the school, but no other details regarding how those plans would work are detailed to the public. As far as underclassmen, officials are working on transitioning them to other schools for next year.

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I'm a graduate of Holy Cross High School in Waterbury, many of my friends are Sacred Heart Alumni. Sacred Heart VS Holy Cross in sports was the Waterbury version of Mets VS Yankees, The Giants VS Jets.

I lived directly across the street from Holy Cross on Oronoke Road for most of my life and I can tell you that the decline in students isn't exclusive to Sacred Heart. Students at Holy Cross used to have to park on Oronoke all the way down to the fields and up Bradley Avenue. Over the past 10 years? Both of HC's parking lots had rows of empty spaces.

A very sad day for a storied Catholic high school in the Brass City. I hope they can find a way to let the upperclassmen finish out their schooling somehow. This has to be a shocking day for all of their current students and for our city.