GCA Students Stand Firm to Save their School
Our Lady of Good Counsel Academy, lovingly known by its students and supporters as GCA, is standing on the brink of a decision by the leadership team of the Sisters of the Divine Compassion, founders of the school.
Located at 52 North Broadway, White Plains, the school campus including historic buildings Chapel of the Divine Compassion, the Mapleton House, and the convent and Mother House of the Catholic religious order Sisters of the Divine Compassion, are up for sale and possible redevelopment.
Students, school staff, members of the religious order, parents, and community neighbors are seeking an answer to one very big question: What is the future of GCA?
Will the school remain on the property with the chapel and other historic buildings, or will it be relocated and the property abandoned to a developer’s vision.
Students of the high school have held periodic rallies, trying to get the attention of the congregation’s leadership in the hopes of engaging in discussion about possible alternatives to vacating the property on July 1, 2015, the date when everyone has been told they must be off the premises.
At the most recent rally, January 6, students endured snow and bitter cold temperatures at 23 degrees, but they held firm and were rewarded with a brief encounter with Sister Carol Wagner, the president of the congregation, who up to this rally had been successful in avoiding any face to face discussion about their school’s future with the students under her care at GCA.
Sister Carol said she would not talk with them, that the students could read what she had written and posted on the congregation’s website regarding the property sale. She did, however, note that she and Sister Laura Donovan, GCA HS principal were doing everything they could to save the school.
