Saint Maria Goretti High School was an all-female Roman Catholic high school located at 1736 South Tenth Street in the South Philadelphia

South Philadelphia

South Philadelphia, nicknamed South Philly, is the section of Philadelphia bounded by South Street to the north, the Delaware River to the east and south, and the Schuylkill River to the west.-History:...

 area of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. In 2004 the school, which was a part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in southeastern Pennsylvania, in the United States. It covers the City and County of Philadelphia as well as Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery counties. The diocese was...

, merged with Saint John Neumann High School

Saint John Neumann High School (Pennsylvania)

Saint John Neumann High School was an all-male Roman Catholic high school located in the South Philadelphia area of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States...

 to form Saints John Neumann and Maria Goretti Catholic High School.

History

Goretti opened in 1955. In 1992 Goretti had 970 students. In October 1992 consultants told the archdiocese that Neumann and Goretti should be consolidated onto Neumann's site. By December of that year the archdiocese decided not to consolidate the two schools. In 2003 Goretti had 683 students and the school had a stable financial situation. By then the combined populations of both schools declined by 29 percent in an 11 year span. In March 2003 the archdiocese asked the faculty and staff of Neumann to consider merging or closing the school as the school had increasing deficits and a decreasing student population. In June of that year the committees unanimously requested a merge. In September of that year Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, the head of the Philadelphia Archdiocese, decided that the merge should occur.

External links

• Saint Maria Goretti High School (Archive)