Video: Nativity BVM Community Pleads to Stay Open

Many "Save Nativity BVM School" signs can be seen in State Street store front windows, more than 500 signatures have been signed to a petition and the voices and chants to keep Media's 100-year-old Catholic elementary school open have been loud—but is the Archdiocese of Philadelphia listening?

The community held a to voice again, the wish to be heard and the wish to keep its doors open come September.

On Feb. 17, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced to host a regional elementary school after it and Nativity merge next school year. The be located at the Media facility.

The way the ruling stands currently, Nativity BVM School building will close its doors at the end of the school year.

More than 150 students, parents, parishioners, business and government leaders came out to Thursday's rally held outside the school.

However, earlier in the day Nativity BVM School Principal Mary Anne Johnston accepted her offer to become principal of the new regional school.

According to Nativity parent Jim Pace, there was a deadline as to when Johnston had to accept the offer she was given, which put her in a difficult position. 

"Why rush the decision? Why did they put such a quick deadline on it when they allowed a process for everything else," Pace said referencing the delay in the high school appeal announcements.

Besides the references to Nativity's academic and financial sustainability, diversity was another theme heard throughout Thursday's rally.

Marrea Walker-Smith, a Nativity parent and former deputy mayor of Chester, said she chose to enroll her daughter at Nativity specifically because it was a diverse school, something she wasn't able to find at any other local Catholic elementary school.

"We made the choice to come here because of its academics, stablity and diversity," Walker-Smith said.

David Hufford, a Media resident and white, adoptive father of two African American Nativity students, said Nativity has a 14 percent diversity rate and there is not another local Catholic elementary school that has such a high diversity rate.

"That worries us. We were delighted with the diversity here. They're at the age where it really makes a difference for (his children to be in a diverse environment)," Hufford said.

The Save Nativity BVM Committee will send a letter to the Archdiocese asking that they review the Blue Ribbon Commission's own reports, the petition signed by more than 500 parishioners and community members and grant their request to keep Nativity's doors open.

(View the attached PDF files above which list the letter, merger facts and reports from each school.)