Archdiocese Closes Another Catholic Elementary School in Manhattan

Heartbroken parents and teachers received the news that Incarnation School, a 116-year-old Catholic elementary school in Washington Heights that counts legendary Dodger sportscaster Vin Scully as an alum, will be shutting down at the end of the current academic year. It is one of three schools the Archdiocese is planning to shut down in the last round of closures. The other two are in the Hudson Valley.

Transfiguration School in Chinatown, which won a coveted Department of Education Blue Ribbon Award in 2024, the last year the federal citation was handed out, will consolidate from three campuses to two.

The other two schools that are slated to close in the last round of cutbacks are: newer schools: Sacred Heart School founded in 1956 in Hartsdale, NY, and Most Precious Blood in Walden, NY, founded in 1966. In addition, St. Anthony and St. Paul School will consolidate into the St. Anthony campus in Nanuet, NY.

The Archdiocese faced “face significant challenges that make it impossible to continue our mission at these locations,” said Sister Mary Grace Walsh, superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese.

The principal Andrew Utate was only promoted to the principal’s job in the summer of 2025, eight months ago. He was not reachable by phone or email by press time.

One teacher at the school who spoke to the NY Post said kids are devastated by the closure, which was announced March 16. “They’re sad. They’re crying every day. They like it here, they do. They feel safe,” the teacher said.

“Over the past two years, in consultation with each Catholic parish and regional elementary school throughout the Archdiocese of New York, the Superintendent of Schools Office has undertaken a School Renewal Process,” said Sister Mary Grace Walsh in a note to parents and students at Incarntion. “As a result of this process, we have come to the difficult determination that Incarnation School in Washington Heights will close at the conclusion of the 2025–2026 academic year.”

Incarnation is the fifth school in Manhattan to shut down in the past three years as the once teaming neighborhoods of Catholic immigrants has shifted and increasing cost of tuition put the schools out of reach of many parishioners. And over the past several decades, the inexpensive nuns and brothers who once taught in Catholic schools disappeared and had to be replaced by more expensive lay teachers.

Catholic schools traditionally outperform public schools and charter schools. In English Language Arts (ELA), nearly 70% of assessed students in Catholic schools within the Archdiocese of New York demonstrated proficiency — outperforming the 56.3% proficiency rate of New York City public schools and slightly exceeding the 67.5% rate of NYC charter schools. In Mathematics, approximately 67% of Catholic school students achieved proficiency, compared with 56.9% in NYC public schools and 68.6% in charter schools.

“These achievements are particularly noteworthy given that Catholic schools continue to educate each student at a fraction of the cost of their public and charter counterparts,” the Archdiocesean news site Good News was boasting earlier this year.

Tuition at Incarnation was only $6,175 a year, but even so enrollment was declining. The school’s web site said it had 275 students in grades 3k to Eighth Grade.

When the school and parish were first established, Washington Heights was a haven for Irish immigrants. So many kids were attending that the parish added two extra floors to the school building and had to resort to triple sessions as the student population expanded to 1,700 by the 1940s.

As the Irish immigrants moved to the suburbs, a new round of Spanish speaking parishioners took their place from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Central and South America.

As recently as 1998 and 2002, the school would send 40 seventh and eighth graders on a ten day trip to Japan.

Incarnation is the fifth school in Manhattan to shut down in the past three years as enrollment declined, expenses surged and tuition hikes could not keep pace with the rising costs of running the schools.

At the end of the 2022-23 school, the Archdiocese shut down 160-year-old Immaculate Conception on E. 14th St., 112-year-old Ascension on W. 108th St.; 123-year-old Guardian Angel School in Chelsea and the merged school of 153-year-old St. Paul & St. Ann, founded in 1926. The closures in 2022-23 also included six schools in the Bronx and one in Staten Island.

Currently, Catholic schools are educating about 50,000 students in Manhattan, the Bronx, Staten Island and several northern suburban counties.

The Archdiocese said it will work to find other Catholic schools for the existing students, but most of the suggested schools are not within walking distance aside from St. Elizabeth School on W. 187th St., which is a 16 minute walk from Incarnation. Other schools on the list put out by the Archdiocese include Our Lady of Lourdes at 468 W. 143rd St., a 38 minute walk; St. Charles Borromeo at 214 W. 142nd St., a 44 minute walk, and Good Shepherd, 620 Isham St., a 47 minute walk.