Friday, December 4, 2009

ST. FRANCIS DE SALES DEANERY— St. Nicholas Academy regional Catholic elementary school is expanding and relocating as a result of recommendations approved last month by Cincinnati Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk.

With the approval for the closing of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart School, requested by Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Parish and recommended by the Cincinnati Area Education Commission, St. Nicholas Academy will move from its Deer Park campus to the OLSH school site in Reading. Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Parish will become the third parish sponsoring St. Nicholas Academy. The other two are Holy Trinity in Norwood and St. John the Evangelist in Deer Park.

“It has always been the goal of St. Nicholas Academy to continue to provide high quality affordable Catholic education to our area children,” said Jay M. Hollmeyer, chairman of the St. Nicholas Academy board of trustees. “With the growth of an additional covenanting parish and its students and moving to a new campus with newer and better facilities, St. Nicholas Academy’s future looks bright for years to come.”

He said negotiations are under way between a St. Nicholas board of trustees task force, Cincinnati Public Schools, Deer Park City Schools and Norwood City Schools to provide transportation for the 2010-2011 school year from Holy Trinity and St. John’s to the St. Nicholas Academy campus in Reading,

The academy opened in the 2007-2008 with the support of St. John the Evangelist and Holy Trinity parishes. “I believe that regional, interparish schools are the wave of the future,” said Father Ron Williams, pastor of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church. “And I believe St. Nicholas Academy is a good fit.”

Coadjutor Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr will offer Mass for students of both schools at 8:45 a.m. Friday, Dec. 4, at the OLSH campus.