All Hallows, a Catholic high school on 164th Street in the South Bronx, recently announced its inaugural coed cohort of students.
This is the first time the historically all-boys school has enrolled female students in its 116-year history. The recent closure of the all-girls Catholic high school St. Barnabas in Yonkers prompted the All Hallows administration to speed up its plans to admit young women next year. All Hallows President Ron Schutte said they saw a need in the community.
“That’s quite traumatic for a teenager and even more traumatic for the faculty and staff there,” said Schutte, referring to the closure of St. Barnabas. “Knowing that we would be going coed in a year or so, we said, ‘Why not reach out to these girls and see what we can do to help them during this traumatic time?’”
The decision to go coed was also in response to lower enrollment of young men, with some unable to attend due to the tuition costs.
“Unfortunately, the demographics that we are serving can’t afford even our tuition which is the most affordable in the Bronx and Manhattan and probably in the other boroughs,” Schutte said. “We are not equipped to offer completely free tuition. We feel kind of up against a wall because we can’t do anything about that.”
The closure of St. Barnabas follows a trend over the past few years of Catholic primary and secondary schools shutting their doors in the New York City area. In May, four schools across the city, including St. Simon Stock in Fordham Heights, announced they would not reopen in the fall. In 2023, the Archdiocese of New York announced the closure of 12 schools and the consolidation of four other schools into two—most of them in the Bronx.
All Hallows issued an invitation to young women from St. Barnabas who wish to continue a faith-based education by promising to honor their scholarships and financial aid package from the closed school. The closed all-girls high school is seven miles north of All Hallows, about 20 minutes by car, and almost an hour on public transportation.
Orientation started Wednesday for freshmen and sophomores. The inaugural cohort comprises about 70% male students to 30% female students, a ratio the South Bronx school hopes to increase in coming years, according to All Hallows administration. All Hallows Principal Nick Corrado said the young men and women learned “what it means to be brother and sisters to each other.”
“It was very positive, the energy and the momentum in the building,” Corrado said.
Schutte and Corrado both stressed the value of a Catholic school education, noting that All Hallows has extensive AP class offerings, as well as partnerships with local colleges to offer dual credit classes. Corrado noted that by graduation, many of the All Hallows students far exceed the number of volunteer hours required to graduate.
Even though orientation already started, parents are still able to enroll their children for the current semester. Corrado said All Hallows wants to work with families, especially those whose children are now in limbo due to Catholic school closures.
“We will try to solve or mitigate any problem that will be presented to us,” Corrado said.
Parents can go to https://www.allhallows.org/ and click “Admissions” to find out more about enrolling at All Hallows.
