The Diocese of Pittsburgh is planning to close one Catholic school and merge two pairs of schools in the coming year.

Under the plans, being formally announced to affected parishioners at Masses Saturday and Sunday:

• St. Rosalia School in Greenfield will close.
• Assumption School in Bellevue will merge with Northside Catholic School in Brighton Heights. The merged school will operate at what is now the Northside campus under a name that will be determined later.
• St. Bernadette and North American Martyrs schools in Monroeville will merge under the name Divine Mercy Academy. Both schools buildings will remain open with students in grades K-8 attending the former St. Bernadette campus and preschoolers the former North American Martyrs campus.

Current enrollments at the schools are: Assumption, 111; Northside, 145; St. Rosalia, 99; St. Bernadette, 268; North American Martyrs, 96.

The decision to close St. Rosalia was recommended by the pastor of the parish, Father Joseph Reschick. Father Reschick, in a letter to Bishop Daivd Zubik, cited a sharp decline in enrollment and substantial financial challenges as the reasons for his request to close the school.

The diocese will assist students of St. Rosalia Academy in finding another Catholic school to attend.

The mergers are part of a diocese-wide consolidation of schools and parishes under a program called On Mission for the Church Alive. The diocese is attempting to combine an evangelistic push with the need to get leaner amid declining membership and Mass attendance and a 50 percent drop in school enrollment since 2000.

Several schools in the North Hills have already come under a single non-profit governing board.

First Published: March 17, 2018, 10:20 p.m.