MELROSE – Daniel Murphy Catholic High School for boys in the Fairfax District will cease to exist at the end of the 2007-2008 school year after an announcement made this week from the Los Angeles Archdiocese.  The reasons are a decade-long decline in enrollment combined with increased operating costs and severe financial challenges faced by the Archdiocese accelerated the decision to close the school at the end of the current academic year, according to an Archdiocese press release.

"Despite efforts to increase student enrollment over the past ten years, the student population has continued to decline, and is now down to 231 students," said Tod Tamberg, spokesman for the Archdiocese. "A further decline in enrollment would have resulted in the cutting back of the curriculum, negatively impacting the school’s ability to offer a quality education to the students. This prospect, combined with the severe financial challenges now facing the Archdiocese, accelerated the decision to close the school in 2008."

Among those financial situations is the $660 million paid to the victims of the priest sexual abuse scandal that the Archdiocese and Cardinal Roger Mahoney settled in court.

But for teachers, parents and students it is a shock  to lose a campus that is highly disciplined and culturally diverse.

"It's very sad to see it shut down," said parent Joseph Valerio in a L.A. Times article, whose son, James, is a senior.

All told, 177 students will need to move to other schools, according to Tamberg, because the rest will graduate at the end of this year.

Daniel Murphy High School for boys was founded by the Archdiocese in 1954, and is not affiliated with a parish, as are some other Archdiocesan high schools.

"Our focus in the coming months will be on placing the freshmen, sophomores, and juniors in other available Catholic high schools, as well as finding new positions for the faculty and staff," Tamberg emphasized. "Sometime in early 2008 discussions will begin about the various future options and alternative uses for the school property."

Junior Vincent Ramos, who made close friends during the three years he has attended Daniel Murphy, said in the L.A. Times article he was concerned that he would be placed on a separate campus from his buddies.

"We're going to try to go to the same school, but who knows what will happen," he said.

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