Marian Catholic High School in Tamaqua and Our Lady of the Angels Academy in Lansford will be losing its members of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary at the end of the 2015-16 school year.

Sister Marie Roseanne Bonsini, director of information services for the Immaculata branch of the Congregation, said Monday that declining membership led to the withdrawal from the area schools.“Our biggest issue right now is personnel,” she said. “We just don’t have the sisters. It’s very painful for us to have to leave missions where we have been for many many years. There are special ties there. It’s a little bit like death. You move away from something you have known and loved for so long.”While Bonsini didn’t know the exact number of sisters leaving the two schools, Sister Bernard Agnes, Marian principal, and Sister Regina Elinich, Our Lady of the Angels Academy principal, are among those involved.“This decision to withdraw has not been easy,” said Sister Lorraine McGrew, general superior of the Sisters. “We make it with a heavy heart, but with our declining membership, and in the interest of apostolic effectiveness, it is one we have to make.”Bonsini said the sisters pulled from Marian and Our Lady of the Angels Academy will be assigned elsewhere, but did not elaborate on where.“Sisters stay in school for a long time,” she added. “Sometimes it isn’t the best for the students or for the sisters for that to happen. We want the very best for the students. Perhaps this is the best solution in the end. We know they leave behind a trail of love and caring that will be picked up by other people.”Agnes and Elinich did not immediately return calls for comment Monday.In an email sent to parents of Marian High School students, Agnes said the school has been a big part of her life as a teacher, studies director and principal.“Marian has truly been a part of the lives of many sisters over the last 61 years,” she added. “Anyone who has ever been stationed here has loved their time and still speaks of many happy memories. It has truly been home for me, and I will always consider everyone here dear to my heart.”Agnes began her high school teaching at Marian as a chemistry teacher in 1976. After serving in several other schools in New Jersey and Philadelphia, she returned to Marian as director of studies until her appointment as principal in 1998.Elinich has been principal at Our Lady of the Angels Academy since 2003.“We knew that the sisters wouldn’t be involved forever, but we didn’t expect it to happen this year,” said the Rev. James Burdess, who is on the board of pastors at the Lansford school.“The majority of Catholic schools today are staffed by lay teachers. The Sisters of Mercy used to work here in Summit Hill and the Bernadine Franciscan Sisters were here. One by one they had to leave because they don’t have vocations anymore,” Burdess said.The Immaculata branch of the Congregation comprises approximately 790 sisters who currently staff Catholic schools and parishes in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina, New Hampshire, and Florida and in the South American country of Peru. The sisters also serve the church in pastoral and other evangelization ministries in other states as well.“We are very grateful for the dedicated and inspirational service and leadership of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in this area of the diocese over the last century,” said Dr. Philip J. Fromuth, Secretary for Catholic Education for the Diocese of Allentown.“The diocese has been blessed by their presence and the IHM Sisters have left an indelible mark on the thousands of students and families that have been entrusted to their care since their arrival in Coaldale in 1915. We are saddened by the announcement of their departure at the end of the 2015-16 school year, and they will be greatly missed. Moving forward, we will be guided by the path they have shown us, as we continue to provide Catholic education for the youth of our diocese in Schuylkill and Carbon counties.”