2 Catholic high schools to close in Phila.

Two Catholic high schools with storied Philadelphia pasts will close in June.

Cardinal Justin Rigali announced last night the closures of Cardinal Dougherty High School in East Oak Lane and Northeast Catholic High School for Boys in Frankford.

"I understand the deep emotions that may be felt by the communities of both Cardinal Dougherty and Northeast Catholic upon hearing the news," Rigali said.

The closures reflect the persistent problems of rising costs, falling enrollment, and competition from publicly funded charter schools across the five-county archdiocese, especially in the city.

Rigali said the decision to close the schools was based on results of a study conducted over the last year.

Bishop Joseph P. McFadden, the auxiliary bishop who oversees Catholic education, said the decisions were final.

The closings underscore problems facing Catholic education across the country, including the Diocese of Camden, which has shut several schools in recent years.

Dougherty's enrollment has plunged by more than 43 percent over the last decade and was projected to fall by an additional 34 percent in the next three years, authorities said.

The school, which has a capacity of more than 2,000 students, has 642 this year.

"The school's physical plant is the third-largest in the archdiocese and is simply too large for the projected enrollment in the region," Richard McCarron, secretary for Catholic education, and Superintendent Mary E. Rochford wrote in a letter to Dougherty parents.

At Northeast Catholic, they said, enrollment had dropped 29 percent in the last decade and was forecast to decline by an additional 24 percent in three years "despite every effort by the school and our alumni to increase enrollment, broaden fund-raising, and market the school."

North Catholic, as the school is known, has space for 1,700 students but has only 551 enrolled this year.

With the help of its alumni association, North narrowly averted closing after a massive high school restructuring 16 years ago.

The two targeted schools will be the first Catholic high schools to close in the archdiocese since 2004, when St. John Neumann and St. Maria Goretti High Schools in South Philadelphia merged to form SS. John Neumann and Maria Goretti Catholic High School.

North Catholic opened in 1926. At one time, its enrollment swelled to more than 4,700 students.

Its famous alumni include the actor John Doman, a 1962 graduate who portrayed Deputy Police Commissioner William Rawls in HBO's The Wire from 2002 to 2008, and Bil Keane, creator of The Family Circus comic panel, who graduated in 1940.

Dougherty was founded in 1956, during a building boom for the archdiocese.

The school, which had a peak enrollment of 6,000 in 1965, has educated more than 40,000 students. Alumni include Florian Kempf, a 1973 graduate who played professional soccer, and Philadelphia Police Officer Charles Cassidy, a 1970 graduate who was killed in 2007 during the robbery of a North Broad Street doughnut shop.

Archdiocesan officials said they would help students and their families transfer to other Catholic high schools.

The news traveled quickly to parents and students and rocked alumni.

Guy Harrison, a 2001 North Catholic graduate who is now assistant athletic director at Eckerd College in Florida, said he learned of the news on Facebook.

"At first, I thought it was a joke," Harrison said last night. "When I was in school, they talked about how North might close, but I didn't think it was possible."

Harrison attended public schools through eighth grade, but his mother chose North for its strong reputation.

"North was a different world for me, not just religion, but in terms of value of education," Harrison said.

Deb Searight, president of the Cardinal Dougherty parents association, said she was reeling last night.

One of her daughters is a senior at Dougherty, and another graduated four years ago. Both "just loved being there," Searight said.

"It's a very diverse school, but like a family. It's community-oriented, close-knit," she said. "It's a second home."

Still, Searight has watched enrollment slip at the school over the last eight years.

"Financially, it's very hard," she said. "Parents are having a tough time. We have some students who start freshman year and can't come back sophomore year."

At North Catholic last night, a handful of basketball players were practicing shots in the gym, and a few stragglers were still taking laps around the track.

Football coaches Tony Owens and Rob Moore stood talking about the news in the parking lot.

"It's a shame, because what's going to happen to the kids?" Owens said. "They have to get their lives disrupted. Socially and academically, it's hard to adjust to a new place."

Owens said he graduated from North Catholic in 1983 and has been involved with the school for 30 years.

"We are just devastated to lose two city schools like this," said Rita Schwartz, president of the Association of Catholic Teachers, the union representing approximately 65 lay instructors at the two schools.

"What is so terribly sad is that the alumni of these two schools have worked so hard," she said.

As recently as 2002-03, 23,102 students were enrolled at the archdiocese's 22 high schools. Annual tuition then was $3,520 for Catholic students.

This year, 18,200 Catholic students attend 20 schools, Rochford, the superintendent, said last night. Annual cost for Catholic students is $5,100.

The archdiocese previously announced it would close and consolidate Kennedy-Kenrick Catholic High School in Norristown and St. Pius X High School in Pottstown when the $65 million Pope John Paul II High School opens in Royersford next fall.