Schools work to retain students
‘Travel kits’ encourage moves

By Michelle Martin
Staff writer

Following the announcement that nearly two dozen archdiocesan elementary schools are set to close at the end of the year, administrators with the Office for Catholic Schools and remaining institutions began their next effort: encouraging families whose schools were closing to choose another Catholic school.

The Archdiocese of Chicago announced Feb. 24 that 23 city and suburban elementary schools were to close their doors at the end of the school year as part of a restructuring plan aimed at keeping the remaining schools vital and strong. At least one school continued to try to register new students as it fought for a reprieve.

The restructuring plan also includes the consolidation of Catholic schools in Waukegan—a move planned and announced last year—and the merge of one Catholic school into a second in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood.

In addition, two multicampus elementary schools will shutter sites, but keep at least one campus open.

The closures will affect 4,157 students and about 500 teachers, administrators and other staff members, according to the Office for Catholic Schools.

But keeping kids in Catholic schools can be a tough sell; a 2004 study commissioned by the archdiocese found that when Catholic schools close, only about 27 percent of their students stay within the parochial system.

To encourage more participation, the Office for Catholic Schools provided each family at the closing schools with a “student travel kit” including information about nearby schools, a DVD with comments from students, parents and educators who have gone through a school closing and transferred to another Catholic school (See The Interview, Page 7); a special telephone number and Web address with resources to help now and with making the transition to another school; a “passport” for students to fill in with information as they visit other schools; and a prayer appropriate for thanksgiving and new beginnings.

Superintendent Nicholas M. Wolsonovich said that National Catholic Education Association was not aware of such extensive efforts to retain students in Catholic schools in other dioceses facing closures.

“We’re hopeful that we can keep 40, 50, even 60 percent,” Wolsonovich said.

All of the closing schools have at least five other Catholic elementary schools within three miles; one has 17.

“There is a place for every student from a school that is closing,” Wolsonovich said.

Many archdiocesan schools are holding open houses in an effort to welcome students from the closing institutions. An updated list of open houses is available on the Office for Catholic Schools Web site, http://www.archchicago.org/resources_schools/info.shtm.

St. Mary of the Angels on the North Side is one facility that is waiting with open arms, said principal Joseph Accardi. Four nearby schools will close, he said March 7, and many of their families attended an open house at the school March 6. So far, the school has registered 67 new children.

That increase comes on top of last year, when the school’s enrollment jumped by 108 students. About half came from St. Mark School, which closed in 2004.

The parents who had contacted him within the first two weeks are those committed to Catholic schools, he said.

“They know what they want,” he said. “And people travel now. It’s not like years ago, when you took your kid to Sister and signed him up and he stayed there until he was done.”

Finding ways to keep students in Catholic schools is key to the archdiocesan restructuring plan.

“The church and this archdiocese is still committed to Catholic education,” Cardinal George said at the Feb. 24 press conference, noting that the Sisters of Mercy opened the first Catholic school in Chicago in 1846. “That will continue. But the resources are limited. What this plan will give us is a responsible way to face the future.”

“A decreasing number of Catholics in certain areas has resulted in a significant decline in enrollment,” Wolsonovich said. “It is important that archdiocesan schools respond to these realities of demographic shifts and economic problems if we are to protect the long-term viability of our remaining schools and ensure that Catholic education continues to be available to all residents of Cook and Lake counties. … We believe our Catholic schools are a holy gift to the Archdiocese of Chicago.”

It is a gift, he said, whose cost has increasingly been borne by the parents who use them. Last year, tuition accounted for nearly $200 million of the $275.5 million needed to operate the system’s 235 elementary schools. Another $40 million came from local fundraising.

As the cost has fallen on parents’ shoulders, it has risen beyond the means of more families, leading to falling enrollments—and higher costs per student.

“Before the 1960s, it was the whole parish community that supported the schools,” Wolsonovich said. For long-term success of the schools, he said, funding them must once again be seen as the responsibility of the whole community.

The archdiocese operates the nation’s second-largest non-public school system, with 235 elementary and 41 high schools educating nearly 107,000 students. After the closures announced Feb. 24, and the earlier announcement that Immaculate Heart of Mary High School in Westchester will close, the archdiocese plans to start school in August and September with 210 elementary schools and 40 high schools.

Among the factors school officials looked at was each school’s enrollment, whether its trend was up or down, whether it received an archdiocesan subsidy, any outstanding bills or debts and the condition of its buildings.

Most of the closing schools had fewer than 200 students, although some had more.

Closures were concentrated in Vicariate III, which covers the near Northwest, West and Southwest sides of Chicago; in Vicariate V, which covers the Southwest Side and near suburbs; and Vicariate VI, which covers the South Side.

Immaculate Heart of Mary School was the only Vicariate II school on the list; its school board is still trying to recruit new students in hopes of staying open.

The moves come in after the closures of 130 archdiocesan elementary schools since 1984, 39 since 2000.

Pastors and principals of closing schools were notified Feb. 23, the day before the general announcement. Many notified parents at the end of the day, and the news was greeted with a mixture of grief, anger and, in some cases, shock.

Many school communities had mounted intense campaigns to save their schools after learning of their precarious situations last fall.

St. Thomas More School on the South Side reportedly raised $75,000 from friends and alumni this year. It set itself apart with a faculty of nuns in full habits, no-nonsense discipline, and recitation of the rosary, despite a largely non-Catholic student body. It wasn’t enough to earn a reprieve.

Parents from Mater Christi School in North Riverside protested in front of the archdiocesan Pastoral Center during the press conference.

While they have only 144 students in the school, they have no subsidy from the archdiocese, and thought they could save their school through increased fundraising efforts.

Standing in front of a sign with the letters “WWJD” for “What Would Jesus Do?” , parent Anna Maria Rokich questioned the wisdom of closing schools.

“They are the future of the faith,” said Rokich, who has a son in preschool and a daughter in seventh grade at Mater Christi. “They are the ones who will carry the faith forward.”

Fellow parent Juanita Crouch has had her two children at Mater Christi for two years, since their last school, St. Eulalia in Maywood, closed.

“I am not happy,” she said. “To take them away from their friends again, from a school that I am happy with? I am not happy at all.”

Neither is the cardinal, who noted that Epiphany School, which his parents attended, is on the closure list.

“No one wants to close a school,” he said. “When you close a school, you’re closing a child’s world. … I get terrible letters, from seventh-graders, who say ‘Please don’t close my school this year. I want to graduate next year.’ Anyone’s heart would go out to them.”



Schools slated to close:

Berwyn: St. Mary of Celle, 1448 S. Wesley Ave.

Chicago: St. Bride, 7765 S. Coles Ave.; St. Camillus, 5434 S. Lockwood Ave.; St. Clotilde, 321 E. 84th St.; Epiphany, 4223 W. 25th St.; St. Felicitas, 1501 E. 83rd Pl.; Good Shepherd, 2725 S. Kolin Ave.; St. Helena of the Cross, 10115 S. Parnell Ave.; Immaculate Heart of Mary, 3820 N. Spaulding Ave.; St. James, 2920 S. Wabash Ave.; St. John Berchmans, 2511 W. Logan Blvd.; Santa Maria Addolorata, 1337 W. Ohio St.; St. Martin De Porres, 5072 W. Jackson Blvd.; Our Lady Gate of Heaven, 2330 E. 99th St.; St. Philomena, 4131 W. Cortland Ave.; Pope John Paul II Catholic School, 4325 S. Richmond St.; Resurrection Catholic Academy, 2845 W. Barry Ave.; St. Simon the Apostle, 5135 S. California Ave.; St. Thomas More, 8130 S. California Ave.

Cicero: Our Lady of the Mount, 2400 S. 61st Ave.

Norridge: Divine Savior, 7750 W. Montrose Ave.

North Riverside: Mater Christi, 2400 S. 10th Ave.

Oak Park: St. Edmund, 200 S. Oak Park Ave.



Two schools will close one of their campuses (the schools themselves will remain open at other campus locations):

Chicago: Northside Catholic Academy will close its St. Henry Campus at 6325 N. Hoyne Ave. (there are two other sites);

Des Plaines: Our Lady of Destiny Catholic School will close its North Campus at 795 Center St. (there is one other site).



Two schools will consolidate to form one new yet-to-be-named school:

Waukegan: Immaculate Conception, 510 Grand Ave. (site of new school);

Lake Shore Catholic Academy, 510 Tenth St.



One school will merge with a nearby school:

Chicago: St. Paul/Our Lady of Vilna Catholic School, 2114 W. 22nd and 2315 W. 24th Pl., will merge with St. Ann Catholic School, 2211 W. 18th Pl.