St. Pius V High School
In 1950, to meet the growing demand for space, Father Cornelius Hayes of St. Pius V Church acquired the Haffen office building between Third and Courtlandt Avenues at the foot of 147th Street.With the flight of businesses, professional offices and the middle class from the neighborhoods we serve; and with the decline in standards of discipline and the upheaval in cultural norms after the 1960s, educational concepts and practices at St. Pius were tested.Slated for closure in 1989, St. Pius received a new lease on life through the efforts of Principal Sr. Mary Jo Lynch OP and her appeal to members of the corporate community through contacts established in 1988 and 1989.After a personal meeting between Sr. Mary Jo and Archbishop John Cardinal O'Connor, and with pressure from Jean Kennedy Smith and Chanel Fashions President, Kitty D'Alessio, the Education Department relented in its efforts to shut the school and thereby save the costs of capital improvements to the building and continued subsidy to the operating budget.During the early 1990s, a committee was formed under the leadership of Kathy Zamechansky, a Bronx-based businesswoman with strong ties to political, business and community groups in the Bronx and Harlem, and independent sources of funding were established.