Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Academy will close at end of school year

February 11, 2025 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

The Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help was the home parish to a school founded originally in 1903, which was renamed in 1917 to match the church’s patron saint. A century later, the parish schools were later named as academies. Eagle Photo by Wayne Daren Schneiderman

Share this:

SUNSET PARK — A CATHOLIC SCHOOL WITH MORE THAN 120 years’ presence in Sunset Park will close permanently at the end of the current school year, the Diocese of Brooklyn announced on Tuesday, Feb. 11.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Academy Brooklyn’s Board of Directors made the decision based on an unsustainable enrollment decline of 36% over the last five years. Since 2020, the number of students has dropped significantly, from 174 to 111 for this 2024-2025 school year, creating a financial hardship. Only 85 students were registered for the upcoming school year. The decline in enrollment has increased the per-student expenditure to more than $11,600, far outweighing the $5,500 tuition revenues.

The Diocesan Schools Office will assist families in transitioning their children to other local Catholic schools. All activities and events will continue as planned through the end of this school year. The school, which will officially close on August 31, 2025, opened in 1903 under the name of St. Alphonsus (Liguori), honoring the founder of the Redemptorists order, according to the school’s history webpage.

The decision follows last year’s closure of three Catholic schools in Brooklyn: Salve Regina Catholic Academy in East New York, St. Catherine of Genoa – St. Therese of Lisieux in Flatbush; and Visitation Academy in Bay Ridge, which the Visitation Sisters closed along with their Monastery, last June.

✰✰✰