HUNTINGTON PARK : Merger of Schools Off to Rocky Start

Two Catholic high schools in the region have merged--a marriage that has been met with mixed feelings.

The consolidation means the all-girl St. Matthias will close and Downey’s coeducational Pius X will expand. The merger takes effect in September.

Although church officials sought the community’s blessings, students, parents, teachers and civic leaders have denounced the decision, which the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles made to save money.

Most of Pius X’s 500 students walked out of classes briefly one day in mid-February, protesting the conversion of the school within four years to an all-girls institution. The boys currently enrolled at Pius X, which account for 35% of the school’s population, are expected to graduate within that period. No more boys will be admitted after September.

Students, parents and teachers from St. Matthias also staged a protest, denouncing the closing of the 35-year-old high school at 6003 Stafford Ave.

Huntington Park Mayor Ric Loya, a teacher at Huntington Park High, was among the protesters.

“It’s like part of the family is dying, a close daughter,” said Loya, who sent a letter to Cardinal Roger M. Mahony asking the archdiocese to reconsider the decision. “It makes it seem they care more about the ‘sons.’ But then again, it’s a bunch of ‘uncles’ making the decisions.”

Church officials said the consolidation of the schools--as well as two others in south Los Angeles County--would help erase an annual debt of $1 million incurred by the schools, said archdiocese spokesman Father Gregory Coiro.

About 50 people will be laid off, he said. Students at St. Michael’s in South-Central Los Angeles will attend Compton’s Regina Caeli school. Both schools are all-girls institutions. Church officials have not decided what will happen to the vacated sites, Coiro said.

Low enrollment has made it unfeasible to keep both schools open, the archdiocese says.

Pius X’s enrollment is projected to increase to 800 girls by 1999, still well under its 1,500 capacity. About 70% of the St. Matthias girls will transfer to Pius X, with the remainder going to other area Catholic schools or public schools.

“We would love to stay here, but understand the financial difficulties,” said St. Matthias Principal Nancy Coonis, who said Pius would benefit from her students.

“I think we will be able to recapture the tradition we have here. The spirit of St. Matthias will live on.”

Jerome R. Porath, superintendent of the archdiocese’s schools, in a written response to the mayor, said: “In the best of worlds it would be desirable to maintain a system of ‘neighborhood’ schools for our students. Unfortunately, the cost of providing a quality education at an affordable price is no longer possible at a small scale.”

Pius X will be renamed within the next year; it will be called Pius X-St. Matthias High until then.

St. Matthias is best known in the community for its fine-arts department, producing highly acclaimed productions in theater, music and art. Sabrina Le Beauf, known for her role as Sandra Huxtable on “The Cosby Show,” was graduated in 1976.

Founded in 1926 by Monsignor Patrick Shear in the parish of St. Matthias where he was pastor, the school was originally the site of an elementary school of the same name. It was rebuilt after most of the school was leveled in the 1933 Long Beach earthquake. The conversion to a high school came in 1960 when a new elementary school opened at Florence Avenue and Mission Place, where the new church was built.