Welcome Home!

CLIFTON  Bishop Serratelli visited St. Philip the Apostle Prep here on Monday morning to offer a heartfelt “welcome home” to its administration, faculty and students. There was a sense of overwhelming joy that day, the first back in their fully-restored classrooms since a fire on Jan. 11 destroyed a section of the building and caused smoke damage in other parts of it. The damage also forced the students to be relocated to two other facilities in the Diocese — Mary Help of Christians Academy, North Haledon, and the John Paul II Pastoral Center, also in Clifton — for 11 weeks, during the clean-up and restoration of the classrooms and other rooms in the building.

At 11:30 a.m. on April 16, Bishop Serratelli toured the parts of the refurbished St. Philip Prep with its principal, Barbara Zito, and several officials from the Diocese, who helped facilitate the restoration of the school and relocation of students and faculty. The early morning fire on Jan. 11 destroyed the Kaleidoscope building for its gifted-and-talented program; caused significant smoke damage to Marion Hall for many of the 455-student school’s activities, classrooms for the lower grades and the Molloy Center, an adjoining building that contains offices for St. Philip the Apostle Parish; and caused minor smoke damage to upper-grade classrooms and the gym. No one was injured in the fire.

“I wanted to stop in and wish you well,” said Bishop Serratelli, who visited several classrooms and a lunch period in the auditorium to the delight of the students. He also blessed them by leading them in making the Sign of the Cross.

During his short classroom visits, the Bishop told students that the fire and the fact that nobody was hurt provide them with an important lesson in life: we should place our greatest value on people, not things or buildings.

“When you have that value and a positive attitude, you can make anything work out in life,” Bishop Serratelli told the students. “The fire taught us another lesson: how everybody came together and cooperated to provide you with a home, so you wouldn’t miss any of your lessons and then bring you back in good time,” he said.

Bishop Serratelli’s visit followed the St. Philip Parish community’s official “welcome home” festivities that took place the day before, April 15, with the 10 a.m. Mass and a dedication of the completion of Phase One of the restoration project, conducted in the school’s auditorium after the liturgy. At the Mass, Father Joseph Garbarino, St. Philip’s pastor and the liturgy’s main celebrant, led the faith community in welcoming administration, teachers and students back to the school building. The priest also thanked officials of the Diocese, City of Clifton, and St. Philip’s parish and school and contractors, who helped make the completion of Phase One of the restoration and relocation of students and faculty so quick and successful. Also, he specifically recognized three Diocesan officials with plaques: Mary Baier, school superintendent; Dennis Rodano, project manager; and Richard Ziccardi, risk manager.

“We gather here today, because of a fire that interrupted our school building. We could have left it at that. But the truth of the situation is that people did what they could do — more than they could have imagined — to continue the process of restoring our school: to bring the building back,” Father Garbarino said in his homily, also acknowledging that the major restoration and relocation project has presented many challenges. “God has given us moments of beauty and serenity. We gather today as witnesses of how he has been working through us in this situation. I thank you all for your participation,” he said.

After the Mass, Father Garbarino presided over the dedication service for Phase One of the project, with parish priests and deacons, parishioners and members of the school community attending.

Following the dedication service, students, pre-k to eighth grade, and their parents walked over from the church to the school to visit their newly-restored classrooms where their teachers were waiting for them. Movers had transported furniture and educational materials from the sixth- to eighth-grade classrooms at Mary Help — run by the Salesian Sisters — and the pre-k to fifth-grade classrooms at John Paul II Center late last week in time for the reopening of St. Philip’s.

“It’s a great day. In the spirit of the Easter season, we have been renewed,” said Zito, who thanked everybody involved.

That morning, Danny Delli Santi and her daughter Adriana toured her second-grade classroom in the lower-grade wing that was heavily damaged by smoke.

“The rooms are even brighter and cleaner — more amazing than before,” Delli Santi said.

Then, Adriana told The Beacon, “I like it a lot” and agreed, “It’s brighter.”

In the upper-grade wing, Marie Clifford, seventh and eighth-grade language-arts teacher, said, “We loved Mary Help, but now it feels like we never left. It feels like a new school. It’s good to be home again — students and faculty — all under one roof.”

Down the hall from Clifford and outside the gym, Mary Davey, a seventh-grader, called Mary Help a “learning experience” in preparation for high school. Students enjoyed the bus ride there, having lockers and traveling from class to class. Mary Help moved many of its classes to other parts of the campus, so St. Philip’s could stay together.

“Now, St. Philip’s is incredible,” Davey said. “There are some nice new things but they didn’t change too much — just like home,” she said.

That “home” of St. Philip’s sustained significant damage in the Jan. 11 fire that started in the ceiling in a hallway of the Kaleidoscope building and was extinguished by the Clifton Fire Department in the early morning. Immediately after the fire, Rodano and Ziccardi were on the scene. In the weeks following, a team of officials from the Diocese and St. Philip Parish and school met daily to develop a strategy to relocate teachers and students, start clean up and plan for restoration of the classrooms and other rooms, such as the nurse’s office and computer lab. The process — which required approval from the City of Clifton and consultation with architects and engineers and the work of numerous contractors — included removing and replacing smoke damaged ceilings, lights, fire alarms and voice and data cabling; cleaning soot from all walls; repainting; and cleaning or replacing furniture and electronics, Rodano said.

“This experience has been a journey of collaboration and collegiality at its best. There was such respect and trust shared among us during these challenging times,” Baier said. “As the St. Philip’s building has been transformed to its new status, so have all of us, who have labored and tirelessly gave of their time and talents,” she said.

During the week before St. Philip’s reopening, Mary Help bade farewell to its guests at a prayer service, led by Father Garbarino. St. Philip’s presented Salesian Sister Marissa DeRose, Mary Help’s principal, with a 50-inch LED Smart TV, a plaque of gratitude and a donation to the school, Zito said.

Now, St. Philip’s moves to Phase Two of the renovations, which will include restoration of the Molloy Center, rebuilding the Kaleidoscope building, refurbishing Marion Hall and completing the replacement of damaged furniture and educational materials, Rodano said.

“While I am certain that all the wonderful people from St. Philip’s and the Diocese thought this day would never come, it finally arrived. After a horrible fire, the coalition of people from St. Philip’s, the Diocese, and the contractors faced a significant challenge and reached the finish line for the benefit of their students, staff, and parents. Good people, working together, made this final result possible. God bless everyone,” said Msgr. James Mahoney, diocesan vicar general and moderator of the Curia and pastor of Corpus Christi Parish, Chatham Township.