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Peekskill's Assumption School To Close In June

PEEKSKILL, N.Y. – After 100 years of educating the children of Peekskill, the Assumption School will close in June.

Parents of Assumption School students were greeted with news of the school's closing Tuesday afternoon as they picked up their children.

Parents of Assumption School students were greeted with news of the school's closing Tuesday afternoon as they picked up their children.

Photo Credit: Art Cusano
Peekskill's Assumption School will close at the end of the school year, according to parents who said they were notified by administrators.

Peekskill's Assumption School will close at the end of the school year, according to parents who said they were notified by administrators.

Photo Credit: Art Cusano

The Daily Voice confirmed from several parents picking up their children that the school will be among those closing at the end of the current school year.

The Archdiocese of New York is to release its list of schools to be closed Tuesday evening, but students and parents are already being notified by the administrators of closing schools across the Hudson Valley.

Willian Martinez of Peekskill, the parent of an Assumption student, said he and his wife received a phone call early Tuesday saying that the school was closing and that letters were going home in students’ book bags. He said he was unsure of where he would send his child to school next fall.

“I think they made a big mistake, because this is the only Catholic school in Peekskill, so all these Peekskill kids have to go somewhere else, like Cortlandt,” Martinez said.

Assumption parent Ed Macri of Peekskill said his whole family attended Assumption School and his child had attended since kindergarten. The current administration dropped the ball by allowing too many students to attend for free or reduced rates, he said.

“I’m disgusted by it,” he said. “I think they knew about this for a long time and they weren’t honest with people. From what I’ve heard not everyone was paying. I have to pay and my son’s friend has to pay. If all 200 kids pay, this school doesn’t close. I understand that there’s less income in some households sometimes, but you’ve got to find a way. I see people pulling up in better cars than me with two or three kids and their kids are getting a scholarship.”

About 200 students are enrolled at the Assumption School, in kindergarten through eighth grade, as well as a sizable class of preschoolers. Some of those students probably would enroll at Catholic schools in Ossining and Cortlandt, but those schools will have only a limited number of spots.

Busing is available through public school districts for up to a 15-mile radius in Westchester County. That would allow Assumption students to attend Catholic schools in nearby Cortlandt and Ossining.

Assumption teachers and other staff also are to be relocated, according to the archdiocese.

Calls to Assumption School administrators were not immediately returned.

Check back for more on this breaking story.

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