The last remaining Catholic school in the Panther Valley is closing at the end of the school year.

Priests in the churches that serve Our Lady of the Angels Academy read a statement from the Diocese of Allentown during Mass this weekend that the school will be shutting its doors.Bishop John O. Barres said the evaluations of the three parishes of the Panther Valley (St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Nesquehoning, St. Katharine Drexel Parish in Lansford and St. Joseph Parish in Summit Hill) resulted in the evaluation of Our Lady of the Angels Academy."The interconnection between the consolidated St. Joseph parish and Our Lady of the Angels Academy also had to be assessed," the diocese said. "While the school enrollment has remained stable for a number of years, the financial forecast for both the parish and the school found insufficient financial resources to maintain both the school and the parish."Barres said more than $100,000 in subsidy would be lost because of the consolidation of the three parishes. As a result of this, the school would have required "significant increases in tuition and/or fundraising that would not be sustainable each and every year."The future financial concerns, as well as the loss of St. Katharine Drexel's church, hall and other facilities, which is located directly next to the school and connected to it through an underground passage, were important factors that were taken into consideration, the diocese said.'Painful decision'"This decision has not been made easily or without extensive deliberation," Barres said. "This decision is most painful because it affects the most precious gifts that have been entrusted to us, our children. Such feelings truly are understandable. "Parents of the 112 students enrolled at the school will receive a list of other Catholic elementary schools in Carbon and Schuylkill counties, as well as information regarding the Catholic Education Continuation and Catholic School Continuation grants to assist families in the transition to another Catholic elementary school in the Diocese of Allentown.Patti Gerber of Coaldale, who lost her parish to the consolidations in 2008 and will lose her new parish in July, said she is broken up about the announcement to close Our Lady of the Angels."I was involved in 2008 when the diocese was first going to close OLOAA," she said. At that time, an advisory board was formed and tasked with raising approximately $150,000, which they did. "We were debt free then."I am distraught over the school because honestly it's a sin that the shepherds who were supposed to lead the flock aren't being the shepherds that they were tasked to be," she said. "I almost feel like we were blindsided. It's painful because of the legacy the school had and all the families (in the Panther Valley) who went there over generations."'Bad feelings'Liz Pinkey, who has children at Our Lady of the Angels, also expressed disappointment."I'm obviously very disappointed that our school is closing, however, the manner in which it was handled and the questions that went unanswered are what makes the whole situation seem very deceptive and shady, and has caused me to have very bad feelings toward the diocese," she said. "Having an email appear in your inbox on a Saturday afternoon, that apparently came from the school secretary, is just flat out cowardly on the part of the diocese.She said that her second-grader made the comment to her, "Mom, I remember when the bishop came to our school and how much he liked it. Why would he close it down if he liked it so much?""You can't answer questions like that," Pinkey said, adding that an alumnus of the school, who runs a company that specializes in feasibility studies and funding Catholic schools, offered his services free of charge but was ignored."I think we should have at least been given the chance to try to answer some of those questions before they made the decision to close the school," she said. "The number that was quoted as being lost in the subsidy was $100,000 annually. That is not an astronomical amount of money. It is a lot, don't get me wrong, but I think there were avenues that could have been pursued to help make up that difference."She pointed to a "very motivated group of individuals involved with OLOAA" who have a "whatever it takes" attitude."We were never given the opportunity to know where the deficits were, much less to figure out how to meet them. I know several parents who repeatedly called representatives from the diocese to share these sentiments and to ask what we needed to do to try to keep our school going. These calls were given lip service at best; many times, they were just ignored."My kids will honestly probably never know or understand what they've lost, but I will and there will be no rebuilding that trust or that faith on my part," Pinkey continued. "At this point, I honestly don't know if we will continue with a Catholic education."The studentsOur Lady of the Angels Academy students come from Summit Hill, Lansford, Coaldale and Nesquehoning - the towns that encompass the Panther Valley - as well as Tamaqua and some from the Lehighton area who enrolled after the diocese closed SS. Peter and Paul's Catholic School at the end of the 2013-2014 school year.Rumors of the closure had been circulating for years, flaring up this past November when the Diocese of Allentown announced that Sister Regina Elinich, the principal of the school, would be reassigned at the end of the school year. No formal announcement on her new assignment has been made.Suspicions of the uncertain future of the school again surfaced in January when the diocese announced the Diocesan Pastoral Planning Commission's task to "complete evaluations of the condition of the parishes and make recommendations for a pastoral plan."But families felt hopeful in February, when Our Lady of the Angels announced that registration for the 2016-2017 school year was open for incoming kindergartners and new students.Our Lady of the Angels Academy was formed at the beginning of the 1999-2000 school year after the Diocese of Allentown closed Our Lady of the Valley because of declining enrollment.The school, which taught students from kindergarten through fourth grades in Summit Hill and fifth through eighth grades in Lansford, merged with St. Michael the Archangel Catholic School in Lansford, to create Our Lady of the Angels Academy.At first, kindergarten through fifth was housed in the former St. Michael's building, while sixth through eighth attended classes at the former St. Ann's School, which had housed the older students of Our Lady of the Valley on Bertsch Street. But in 2002, the two buildings were consolidated again into the current site at 123 E. Water St.Today, the school serves students from preschool through eighth grade.