Jelani Cobb’s article Class Notes, resonated with me in a very strange way that is close to home. Even though I have never enrolled in public school until now, I deeply understand the feeling of what happens when schools you’ve grown to know have, in a sense, died.

Going to an all-girls Catholic High School, definitely shaped me into the person I am today. It is an experience that is, in a way, is unlike the public high school system. Besides the obvious, like being surrounded by only one gender for four years and taking religion classes that deeply affected your overall GPA, it is an experience that I would not change for the world. There is just something so comforting about going to a small school with your close friends and wearing the same uniform every single day.

However, during my high school career, I noticed that many Catholic high schools around us were either getting modified or completely shut down. It was during this transition that enrollment for our school slightly went up due to the fact that those students who were victim to their school shutting down were coming to us to finish high school. The main reason why catholic schools shut down is similar to why Jamaica High School shut down: enrollment dropped significantly. Cobb mentioned that only 24 members make up the graduating class of 2014.

In the case a Brooklyn Catholic High School, Bishop Ford, enrollment dropped by 1,347 to 499 over the past eight years. A recent all-girls Catholic high school in Staten Island, St. John Villa Academy, announced that it would close its doors this year, stating that they couldn’t compete with increasing expenses and a drop in enrollment.

My former high school in Brooklyn, as well as many others, has continued to survive the drop in catholic schools. However, though they have been doing well, there is always a small thought in the back of my mind as to whether or not my school will be next.

High School is a time of growing. Defining moments are shaped in those four years of schooling, and it is nothing short of a tragedy when that school comes to a close and shuts its doors for good. We don’t know which school will be subject to closing down but we do know this: the memories made there will last a lifetime.