BERLIN, N.H. (AP) – New Hampshire’s northermost city, which once had seven Catholic schools, will have none come June.

St. Michael School, which has 52 pupils in preschool through fifth grade, also is the last Catholic school in the state’s sparsely populated North Country.

“Simply stated, the school is not educationally viable or economically sustainable at this enrollment,” Sister Mary Elizabeth Whalen of the Diocese of Manchester said in a statement Thursday. “It is with great sadness that we make this announcement.”

Parents were told about the closing at a meeting Thursday night. Diocesan officials said the school’s enrollment has dropped more than 50 percent since 2000 and, despite financial support from the diocese to reverse the trend, was projected to drop further in coming years.

“There was a lot of emotion in the room,” said the Rev. Richard Roberge, pastor of the Good Shepherd Parish in Berlin and Holy Family Parish in Gorham.

“I was very impressed with them,” he said of the parents. “They were emotional, but they understood the reality of the dropping enrollments. It was very difficult to share this news. But we are a faith-based community and we will move forward.”

Berlin school superintendent John Moulis said the city’s schools will not have any trouble absorbing the school’s pupils. But he said he was saddened by the closing and the loss of choice for parents.

The school was called St. Patrick when it opened in 1948 and was known later as West Side Catholic School and then Berlin Regional Catholic School. It became St. Michael in 1997.

The teachers originally were nuns, but the faculty recently was made up of lay Catholics.

“This is another sad day in Berlin,” said Mayor Bob Danderson. “Catholic schools have been dominant in the city’s history and this is the last one. It is very sad.”

Roberge, who grew up in Berlin, said the city, population about 10,000, has had Catholic schools since 1889. When the paper industry was booming, the city was twice as big and Catholic education also thrived.

“At one time, there were five Catholic grammar schools and two high schools, as well as a girls’ school in Gorham,” Roberge said. “There was a time when there were 3,000 children in Catholic schools.”

St. Michael was the last Catholic school in Coos County. St. Albert’s School in West Stewartstown closed in 2003 after 75 years.