Metro

B’klyn Catholic HS Nazareth closing

New York City will lose another of its premier Catholic high schools in June, The Post has learned.

Nazareth, the Brooklyn school that houses a nationally ranked girls basketball team, will close its doors because of declining enrollment, principal Providencia Quiles announced to her faculty and students yesterday morning. The school opened in 1962.

Nazareth went from 602 students in 2006 to 311 this year, according to a statement from the school’s board of trustees. Sources said Nazareth, though actually on the upswing in terms of registration this year and going into next, is in debt to the Brooklyn diocese for up to $3 million.

“Today’s announcement is a difficult one, but sadly in today’s economy, many Catholic schools have had to close,” Alice Hession, chair of Nazareth’s board of trustees, said in a statement. “It is very sad that a great school like Nazareth has to be one of them.”

The news comes one year after Rice and St. Peter’s HS for Girls closed and two years after St. Michael Academy and Stella Maris were shut down. Rice had a nationally ranked boys basketball team, and St. Peter’s featured a prominent girls hoops squad.

Nazareth also has a long boys basketball tradition with alums including former LA Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy.