LYNN — St. Mary’s has announced that it will move its Sacred Heart Elementary School from Boston Street to the school’s Tremont Street location at the end of the 2022-2023 school year.
St. Mary’s Head of School John Dolan sent an email to parents at Sacred Heart Friday evening announcing that the St. Mary’s Board of Trustees intends to vacate the school’s Boston Street location to avoid the risk of being denied accreditation from the state.
“No matter your personal views about the compatibility of the missions of adult sobriety and early childhood education, the school has concerns about achieving the Department of Early Education and Care accreditation,” Dolan wrote. “The fact that their formal ruling will not arrive until after the school would have invested substantial resources made this an obvious decision by the board.”
In January, St. Mary of the Sacred Heart, with approval from the Archdiocese of Boston, announced its plan to sell its convent building to Chelsea’s House, a women’s sober home. The site’s close location to Sacred Heart’s elementary school ignited backlash from parents and local officials.
Last week, the City Council passed a motion filed by City Council President Jay Walsh to write to the Archdiocese of Boston. The proposed letter would request that the church meet with the city for a public hearing on the sale. The motion also requested that the letter ask the Archdiocese to consider delaying the convent sale.
“People are voicing concerns and there’s no answers,” Walsh said Thursday. “They said they’re working very close, and they’re not. They’re not answering the questions and they’re trying to force this sale even faster so that they don’t have to answer to it. It’s not fair to the community.”
The St. Mary’s Board of Trustees is expected to finalize their move to Tremont Street Feb. 28. Dolan, in a written statement, said that the move would not eliminate any of the school’s seats and would reduce maintenance costs associated with operating in an old building.
“Not one single seat in Catholic education in Lynn was lost with the consolidation decision,” Dolan wrote. “The operational cost savings by vacating a physical plant that is long past its prime is something that stood out to our board.”
With plans to move the school’s kindergarten through fifth grade program to Tremont Street, Dolan said that the trustees are still reviewing options for Sacred Heart’s pre-K program.
Some parents are fighting the move, distributing petitions to stop the convent sale. An unnamed mother of a fifth grade Sacred Heart student said that she was concerned for the school’s early childcare program, and was frustrated by the church’s lack of communication with parents.
“Moving the school was a cop-out. They listened to the parents’ complaints, and then instead of fighting with us to stop the sale, they decided to move the school,” she said. “They’re only moving kindergarten through the fifth grade, so what’s going to happen to the preschool program that the principal worked so hard to establish?”
Some Lynners consider the pushback against Chelsea’s House to be discriminatory against those in recovery. Kathleen McCarthy, a Ward 3 resident and nurse, said that she thinks opposition to Chelsea’s House is rooted in misunderstanding of how sober homes operate.
“They’re just women trying to get their lives together,” McCarthy said. “I just think that these residents who are opposed to it don’t know what a sober house is. They’re very strict. They have strict curfews and rules, and when people break them, they leave quietly.”
McCarthy added that she considers attempts to block the sale discriminatory against those suffering with addiction. She said that sober homes bring relief to parents who have watched their children struggle with substance use.
“I think there’s a lot of mothers and parents out there who are grateful for these places, and would like to see more of them in Lynn,” she said.
Walsh said in an interview Friday evening that he thought the St. Mary’s Board of Trustees “did the right thing to protect those kids.”
Walsh said that he has seen friends go through the stages of recovery, and while he understands the need for sober living facilities in Lynn, he believes that the Archdiocese’s choice to sell the covenant was purely financial.
“I can’t believe that the Archdiocese of Boston put everyone, including a school in our community, in a bad spot for money,” he said.
