Plenty of kids in the halls, Enrollments are up at LIs Catholic high schools, even as the diocese struggles to fill seats at lower levels NASSAU AND SUFFOLK Edition

• Published in: Newsday
• Main Author: RITA CIOLLI. STAFF WRITER
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Long Island, N.Y Newsday LLC 14.03.2005
• Edition: Combined editions
• Subjects: O Brien, Joanne

A recent diocese survey of families with children in religious education programs found that cost was the primary reason for the empty seats. Priests, principals and parents say that, while Catholic families may want to do both, they often choose to bypass lower-grade parochial education to save money for high school. At the same time, the competition for space in most Catholic high schools has frustrated some parents who have paid tuition bills since kindergarten only to find that 40 percent of high school students cross over from public schools. The average annual high school tuition is about $6,000, although it varies by school and does not include as much as $3,000 in private busing for some students. "I thought Catholic school would be raising the bar for my child and what I expected of them ... There are rules and expected codes of behavior," said Rick Sacco of Farmingdale. Sacco, an administrator for New York State, said he gladly pays the $1,000-a- month tuition for both his son Richard, a sophomore at Holy Trinity Diocesan High School in Hicksville, and daughter Annemarie, a senior at Our Lady of Mercy Academy in Syosset. The fall's islandwide ninth-grade class of 3,562 students is likely to grow because some schools still have empty seats, including St. Dominic's in Oyster Bay, where the parish is struggling to overcome deep divisions from the clerical sexual abuse crisis. There is also room at Academy of St. Joseph in Brentwood and McGann-Mercy Diocesan High School in Riverhead, which the diocese is rebuilding after it took over the school in 2002 from the Sisters of Mercy. The other schools have waiting lists.