St. Philip Neri School is getting more than a fresh coat of paint and new windows for the 2023-24 academic year. The school has made a more substantial change in its administration, with Academic Dean Regan Haney having joined on August 1, following the hiring of Principal Amy Rowe in May.

“As the [academic dean] my focus is student success. That’s the bottom line of why I am here. I do that by collaboration. I am collaborating with Amy all the time on all the programs and all the initiatives. I’m collaborating with the teachers to make sure that they understand and are using their student data to base their instruction,” said Regan Haney, the school’s new academic dean, Regan Haney. Haney joins the school’s new principal, Amy Rowe, who was hired in May.

The parish, the school, and new housing being built and operated by Catholic Homes New York, a Catholic Charities of New York partner, are becoming part of a pilot project on the Grand Concourse, the St. Philip Neri Catholic Education and Family Center. The new center will allow multiple ministries that serve the community to properly allocate resources so that families can access the services they need in a coordinated manner, representatives said. That mission has focused Haney’s work at the school.

“The community is at the center of this project, more so than before. It’s at the heart of what we do. Reaching out to families as much as possible, it takes a village. The community is the center of what we’re doing,” Haney said.

Although she is concentrating on the first day of school on September 7, Haney already knows what success will look like next summer. “We’ll know that we’ve succeeded whenever we continue to see growth from the students, when we see the family involvement. Also, keeping the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) test scores growing. And knowing the family can come here whenever they need,” she said.

Rowe and Haney said they are close to filling their campus minister position, a role that Rowe called “pivotal” at a Catholic educational institution.

The importance of Catholic education was the primary concern of Erika Mendez, parent of an incoming St. Philip Neri School third grader. After Mendez’s daughter’s previous school closed at the end of the 2023 academic year, she toured St. Philip Neri as part of the selection process for the coming school year.

“It was big and clean and inviting, it was kind of my first choice,” Mendez said. 

“The archdiocese was also investing in this school make center of excellence, and that gave it the edge,” said the Bronx resident, who emphasized that she wanted her daughter to enjoy the same level of Catholic school excellence that she and her husband had enjoyed in their youth.

Founded by migrant laborers from Italy, St. Philip Neri parish celebrated its 125th anniversary earlier this year, under the leadership of its pastor, Father Dan O’Reilly. St. Philip Neri School was established later to serve the educational needs of the local Catholic community.

The first of two new Catholic Homes New York buildings is expected to open in September.