What’s Next For St. Jude Students?

The announcement by the Mobile Arch Diocese to close the St. Jude school has been a shock to the Montgomery community. 

 

The school teaches children from 7th through 12th grades who now have to rethink next year. 

One of those options is Resurrection Catholic School, which offers similar tuition and academic standards. 

 

“I think if you look across the Catholic system here in the arch diocese of mobile, there’s a similar standard of excellence and expectation from our students so they should not have any great difficulty to Montgomery Prep or Resurrection,” said Father Manuel Williams, the Resurrection Catholic’s Missionaly Director. 

 

Resurrection has students from Pre-K all the way through 8th grade. For those high schoolers left stranded, they’ll have to look to Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School which has slots open or a non-Catholic school.

 

Father Williams is a graduate of St. Jude and is very sad to see the school close.

 

“As a person who’s spent a good portion of my career in ministry supporting and being involved in Catholic education, specifically in the african american community, to see an institution that has made such a great impact on the lives of so many people have to close it’s doors so it’s a sad day,” said Williams. 

 

For those who are still thinking of how to pay for private school next year, members of the Black Alliance for Educational Options were at Resurrection to help families take advantage of the Accountability Act. 

 

“If someone falls under the low income guideline they can get a scholarship to put their child in a private school, christian school, or out of zone public school. The idea is we want low income and working class families to have the same opportunities as those with money have,” said Duncan Kirkwood with BAEO.