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A nearly 100-year-old Catholic school in Medford is closing
Citing falling enrollment and growing costs, the St. Joseph School will close at the end of the school year.
Citing falling enrollment and higher costs, the nearly 100-year-old St. Joseph School, which serves pre-K through eighth grade in Medford, is closing its doors at the end of the school year.
In recent years, enrollment has steadily declined, wrote Pastor Father Hynes in a letter to parents. Today, the school has 169 students, down from 222 in the 2021 to 2022 academic year.
Add the increasing costs of educating and maintaining the buildings, and the operations have become unsustainable.
“We simply cannot pass the growing costs of keeping the school open to families,” wrote Terrence Donilon, secretary of communications for the Archdiocese of Boston, in a statement. “The parish is not in a position to take on such expense and debt.”
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According to the school’s website, there are 15 faculty members and six staff members who work alongside Pastor Father Hynes.
The Sisters of Saint Joseph of Boston founded the school in 1929. In 1999, the sisters converted a part of the first-floor convent into a preschool facility.
The school will provide families with options to send their children to other Catholic schools in the area for next year.
Tuition assistance offered by the Catholic Schools Foundation will be available to families who enroll in other Catholic School Offices for Archdiocese of Boston-sponsored or supported schools.
In addition, Catholic schools with open positions will prioritize St. Joseph’s faculty and staff.
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“For more than 97 years, St. Joseph has been a bedrock in our community,” Father Hynes wrote. “Our students graduate as models of our faith as well as responsible and accomplished members of society. To say this is a heart-wrenching decision is an understatement.”
In an effort to prevent the school’s closure, Laurie Dickens started an online petition that has garnered nearly 600 signatures.
Dickens describes the school as “a place where lifelong friendships have been forged, and cherished memories have been made.”
“The closure of our beloved school would not only impact the students and their families but would also be a great loss to our community as a whole,” Dickens wrote in the petition’s description.
Growing list of closures
The closure adds to an ever-growing list of religious schools in the Greater Boston area that have shuttered due to financial struggles and declining enrollment.
Earlier this year, K-8 MetroWest Jewish Day School in Framingham announced it was closing at the end of the school year.
The Academy at Penguin Hall, an independent all-girls preparatory school rooted in Catholic eduction in Wenham, closed after it filed for bankruptcy in 2025.
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Saint Joseph Prep in Boston closed in 2023 after more than 100 years, citing financial difficulties. Also in 2023, Matignon High School, a Catholic school in Cambridge, closed, citing financial pressures and declining enrollment.
Two other Catholic high schools, Mount Alvernia in Newton and Bishop Connolly in Fall River, also announced closures in recent years.
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