With similar schools shutting down across New Orleans, Christ the King Elementary School joins the list of other Catholic schools that have been laid to rest.

Founded in 1963, Christ the King provided a Catholic education to the children and community in Terrytown for almost 60 years.

However, a letter sent to parents on Jan. 17 from Christ the King Parish pastor Rev. Michael Nam Nguyen and Superintendent of Catholic Schools for the Archdiocese of New Orleans RaeNell Houston stated that the school would be closing in the 2020-2021 school year.

“As many of you are aware, Christ the King has experienced significant declines in enrollment and financial struggles since Hurricane Katrina,” they wrote in the letter. “Please know that this decision was not made lightly and that many efforts were made to keep the school open.”

Across the city of New Orleans, numerous Catholic schools were closed in the past year including Sacred Heart of Jesus School and Our Lady of Divine Providence School due to similar struggles. According to Houston in an interview with The Clarion Herald, she said the main contributing factor to the school’s closure is the enrollment of only 189 students.

“It’s not an academic quality situation. It is strictly financial and enrollment,” Houston told The Clarion Herald. “When the enrollment dips below 200, you cannot sustain offering educational programs with the numbers we have.”

Sister Marie Noel, who served as Christ the King’s principal from 1968 to 1978, said that Catholic schools, such as Christ the King, are struggling to the changes in the expense of keeping them open and affordable.

“The teachers that are teaching there can not live on the salary that they were in the past,” Noel said. “Parents and families are struggling more with the rise in tuition costs and the rise of the cost of daily living. So, I think it becomes very difficult.”

With the closure of Christ the King, Houston wrote in the letter to parents that staff members from the Office of Catholic Schools will come to campus to help parents enroll their children in other local Catholic schools.

Though she believes Catholic school is beneficial to forming a Catholic child, Noel said that it takes more than just a school to do so.

“Catholic foundation is not just the work of the school but it’s the work of the family and the community to evangelize,” she said. “We all have that responsibility to pitch in and make up for the deficit there when there is no Catholic school in the area.”

Having spent many years at Christ the King, Noel said that the announcement of the closure was saddening. However, she also that things have to move on.

“There is nothing that you can do to go back. I know that God works his miracles and that many people benefited from the dedication of all of the sisters and the teachers,” she said. “Most of the people that went there received a good education from people that love them.”

Another person saddened by the upcoming closure of the school is April McDonald. McDonald, who attended Christ the King from Kindergarten to 8th grade, said that she will miss the friends and memories that were formed there.

“Many of us started in Kindergarten and graduated from 8th grade together. In fact, many of the girls graduated from high school together,” McDonald said. “I remember the annual school fairs and each grade performing on the stage.”

For Noel, she said the things she will miss the most from the school was the people that made up Christ the King from the staff to the community as a whole.

“That was truly a community of people that worked from their hearts,” Noel said. “When we had fairs, the parish and the school came together. It was a total parish involvement with so many people. It was a community and a family atmosphere.”

Along with the people she met through the school, she also said that the experience she gained from her time as a teacher and principal will stick with her.

“I was a young principal that didn’t know very much,” she said. “I learned a lot from the teachers and the parents and I learned a lot from the school board members. I grew along with the students.”

Even though she knows that the closure is inevitable, Noel said she does wish that she could change things.

“I’ll always have a special place for Christ the King in my heart,” she said. “If  I won the lottery, maybe it could be changed. But, since I’m not playing the lottery, I don’t know.”