By Pete Stidman
News Editor

With less than two weeks to go before Cardinal Seán O'Malley is expected to announce a re-organization plan that will close three to five of Dorchester's eight Catholic K-8 schools, parents from St. Peter School on St. Bowdoin Street are saying: "This school needs to stay here."

State Rep. Marie St. Fleur called over 70 parents and children, many of them first- or second-generation immigrants from Cape Verde, Haiti and a number of other countries, to a meeting in the school's auditorium Sunday.

"What do you want us to say to the Cardinal?" she asked. And a line formed to the microphone.

"I was in the church this morning when I heard about it," said a mother of two, Silvia Olveira. "It was a shock to me. If this school closes it's another door closed for us."

Pictured: Ann Myriam Talisma, Kelly Barbosa and Mary Kate Hart discussed coloring techniques while well over 70 parents traded ideas of why and how they should defend the St. Peter School in the school's 3rd floor auditorium. Talisma and Barbosa are students at the school. Hart, daughter of state Sen. Jack Hart (background right), attends Gate of Heaven Elementary in South Boston. Photo by Pete Stidman

"I prayed a lot to be able to get my daughter to experience something I never had, and now it seems like she's going to lose that opportunity," said Vanessia Lynch-Tate. "I need to fight for my daughter. If I don't, who will?"

The themes hit on again and again were the safety and security St. Peter provides for children growing up with violence in their community, the strength of the school's teachers, and the benefits a Catholic education can provide. State Sen. Jack Hart made connections to the crowd as a father of four, and Rep. Martin Walsh drew lines between himself, a son of Irish immigrants, and a group of children coloring with crayons near the stage, whose parents traveled here from Haiti and Cape Verde.

Rev. Daniel Finn, mentioned by one speaker as someone who always did right by his parish, sat amongst the gathering, smiling to everyone who caught his eye. His assistant, Rev. Christopher Gomes, translated St. Fleur's appeal into Haitian Kreyol, and Paulo De Barros, director of the teen after-school program housed in the school's Ronan Memorial Hall, translated the proceedings into Cape Verdean Kriolu. In the far back corner of the room, Edward Saunders, a lobbyist for the Archdiocese and an advisor to the Cardinal, sat near the end of one of the long cafeteria-style tables and appeared to listen intently.

"If you close down this school, there's not going to be any future for these kids," said high school sophomore Luis Tavaras, a tall, lanky graduate of St. Peter who took the microphone. "In Bowdoin Street, there's no other positive places to be. If you close the school, the church is going to be closed, and the after-school is going to close. Little by little, without this school, it's all going to close."

Given Dorchester's shrinking Catholic population over the past decade, Tavaras' prediction has been voiced by many, including Hart only minutes earlier.

Tavaras' estimation of the school's importance to all the youth in the Bowdoin-Geneva neighborhood is also shared. Complemented by an after-school program for kindergarteners through 6th-graders that gives homework help and valuable working-time for parents, and the Teen Center, which does much the same with kids 15 to 19 years-old from Jeremiah Burke and other public high schools, St. Peter is seen by many community activists as a salve to the violence that has recently bloodied the streets of Bowdoin-Geneva and taken the lives of young men in the Cape Verdean community.

"The after-school thing…it gives the kids something to go to," said Police District C-11 Captain John Greland. "If we lose that, where are these kids going to go? It's a safe environment and it works."

"I moved here nine years ago from Cape Verde," said Steve Barbosa, a father of one. "Public school was not an option, based on the violence. We know who's responsible. Mostly it's Cape Verdeans who are responsible. There is a reason these things happen. They don't have a good education. If they take this school, most of the kids probably will go to public school."

A number of speakers cited a lack of transportation, time and money that would prevent them from taking their children to Catholic schools in other parts of Dorchester, and others nodded in agreement to their words.

According to St. Fleur, the Archdiocese has made assurances that the after-school programs would not be closed, even if the school is, and De Barros himself said he wasn't worried about it, but parents and others have said they consider the school and after-school programs to be integral. Mary Lou Amhrein, principal of the school, said it is a symbiosis worth emulating.

"We already have a model that we want people to look at and support," said Amhrein while giving a tour of the Teen Center after the meeting. "We serve kids from early morning to late at night. We could do more with financial support. I'm not against the consolidation, but under the regional model you either have to be a magnet school or be supported by your parish," she paused. "They have no money here."

According to the 2010 Initiative consultant team that first presented eight school reorganization possibilities to parents and teachers in October, three of the options would be presented to the Cardinal to aid in his final decision. The Reporter has since confirmed that these three proposals have already been chosen by the 2010 committee and given to the Cardinal.

Sources close to the process have confirmed that St. Peter would be open and renovated in only one of the three possible plans, but would give no other details. Parents at St. Ann, St. Gregory and St. Mark schools have expressed confidence in their schools' survival. St. Kevin, Blessed Mother Theresa and St. Angela de Medici school parents seem less sure. St. Brendan School opted out of the reorganization completely in October.

The chosen proposal, or a completely new option from the Cardinal, is expected by Nov. 30. Archdiocese spokesperson Terrence Donilon did not respond to requests for comment for this article.

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