BAY RIDGE — Classes at Fontbonne Hall Academy aren’t set to begin for another week, but Harley McElroy just couldn’t wait.
So the seventh grader, who is enrolled in the new middle school program at Fontbonne Hall, was on the Bay Ridge campus on Tuesday, Sept. 3, to enjoy a ribbon-cutting ceremony marking the dedication of the program.
Up until June, Harley was a student at Visitation Academy, a K-8 Catholic school in Bay Ridge that closed at the end of the 2023-2024 school year due to declining enrollment. She wondered where she would be going to school this fall and now she wonders no more.
“Being here is so great. I’m so happy that they were able to accommodate us here at Fontbonne. It made it a really easy transition for us after the closing of Visitation,” said Haley, adding that she is looking forward to taking classes in the science lab.
Classes are set to begin at Fontbonne Hall on Monday, Sept. 9.
The Sisters of the Visitation, who sponsored Visitation Academy, announced earlier this year they would be closing their monastery at 8902 Ridge Blvd. in Bay Ridge, and would no longer be able to sponsor the academy located on the property. The academy closed for good in June at the end of the 2023-2024 school year.
Fontbonne Hall, an all-girls Catholic high school sponsored by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood, came to the rescue by establishing a middle school program for sixth, seventh, and eighth graders.
The new entity, Visitation Middle School Program at Fontbonne Hall Academy, is housed on the Fontbonne campus at 9901 Shore Road.
So far, 35 students have enrolled, according to Principal Rocco Gentile. Of those 35, he noted that two-thirds came over from the now-closed Visitation Academy.
The middle schoolers will share the campus with the high school students, enjoying access to classrooms, the gym, the cafeteria, the science lab, and other amenities. With the influx of younger girls, there will now be approximately 300 students on the Fontbonne Hall campus for the fall semester, according to Gentile.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony, which took place in front of the building on campus where the middle school program will be located, marked a turning point for Fontbonne Hall.
“It was a historic moment for the school,” Gentile said. “We’re so thrilled at the coming together of these two schools, these two academies with a similar vision and similar mission, to empower young women to be leaders in the community, compassionate leaders rooted in the Gospel.”
In a symbolic gesture, Fontbonne Hall officials asked Sister Tesa Fitzgerald, president of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood, and Sister Susan Marie Kasprzak, VHM, of the Sisters of the Visitation, to cut the ribbon.
“It’s an important milestone in the long, stellar legacy of Catholic education for girls and young women,” Sister Tesa said of the new middle school.
Sister Susan said she was grateful for a happy ending for Visitation Academy students.
“We know that the students, of course, were very disappointed in having to leave their school. So this is something hopeful for them,” she explained. “Plus, it’s a beautiful environment, a beautiful school, and the sense that there’s a high school right here.
“They don’t have to imagine what it’ll be like in the next few years. They can see right before their eyes.”
Eighth-grader Olivia Shahin, who had attended Visitation Academy since she was little, is relieved to continue her education in a school not far from her old one and is eager for classes to begin.
“I feel like it’s a great opportunity. I think it’s going to be something new,” she said. “I’m very excited to meet all the high school students and to become new friends with other girls.”
