Lower East Side school closes - New York News | NYC Breaking News

Lower East Side school closes

A well known school on the Lower East Side is closing its doors.

Nativity Mission Center has been serving the Lower East Side for 40 years as a middle school and more years as a service to the poor of the neighborhood.

Located on 204 Forsyth Street across from Sara D. Roosevelt Park, Nativity Mission Center operated as a private Jesuit middle school for impoverished families offering students with a high quality education that had a focus on Jesuit traditions.

Since 2010, Nativity Mission Center has been trying to relocate because the neighborhood now has fewer poor students.  Unable to find a location, the school now has no choice but to close its doors.

At the 40th commencement on June 15th, alumni and families celebrated the graduation of the 8th grade class while thanking the staff and administration for all of their help.

Cristian Martinez, who gave the farewell address and will attend Regis High School as a freshmen in the fall stated, "The building may not be there anymore, but we will carry the spirit of Nativity with us."

Nativity Mission Center is part of a network called New York Nativity, a network of the Nativity schools in New York.

It was the first Nativity school opened. Saint Ignatius School in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx opened in 1995 as the second. Brooklyn Jesuit Prep in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn opened in 2003 and is the third school of New York Nativity.

Nativity also inspired the establishment of the Nativity Miguel Network of Schools, a network of all the Nativity schools nationwide.