The start of the new school year for St. Mel’s Catholic Academy in Whitestone was not just the first day of studies but the continued expansion of academics with the addition of a new fifth-grade class.

The start of the new school year for St. Mel’s Catholic Academy in Whitestone was not just the first day of studies but the continued expansion of academics with the addition of a new fifth-grade class.
This year, Lisa Muller-Leo transferred her first-grade daughter Harley from public school to St. Mel’s Catholic Academy in Flushing. The school where Harley attended kindergarten apparently had no clue several weeks into the academic year.
St. Mel’s Catholic Academy — which had been slated to permanently close after 59 years as a kindergarten through eighth-grade school on Aug. 31, 2020 — received a second chance by becoming an early childhood center in the fall of 2020.
As the Tampa Bay Buccaneers offense decided to run out the clock in victory formation at Super Bowl LV on Feb. 7, along the sidelines stood a woman who already made history: Maral Javadifar, who is one of the first full-time female coaches in the NFL.
A new early childhood center is opening at the site of St. Mel’s Catholic Academy in Flushing and parents are hoping to expand the center at some point to include upper grades.