Hagerstown community explores options to keep school open

Steven Cohen
·1 min read
2

HAGERSTOWN, Md. (DC News Now) — For 90 years the St. Maria Goretti High School has been a canter for Catholic education in western Maryland.

But financial problems have beset the school and this spring semester will be its last.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore has spent more than $8.5 million over the past decade to support Goretti but says it has now reached a point where it “cannot bridge the gap between operating expenses and revenue.”

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One local booster in the community has a strategy he thinks can save Goretti. He would like to see St. Mary’s Catholic Elementary in Hagerstown be a feeder school to keep enrollment up at Goretti.

“By expanding the base of kids to recruit and partnering with St. Mary’s and then the Catholic church,” Len Lindenmeyer said. “I think those three sources would deliver 175 kids to Goretti.”

Lindenmeyer has reached out to 18 Catholic churches in the region to enlist their help to keep Goretti from having to close its doors.

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