For the past 30 years, the trend in Catholic education has been for the Archdiocese of Chicago to close grade schools, not open them.
And when new parishes sprang up to serve the growing suburban flocks, pastors were discouraged from taking on the daunting task of raising millions of dollars to build companion schools.
Now, however, the Chicago archdiocese is building a school, and it will not be the typical parish school. It will be the archdiocese’s first regional elementary school when it opens in the fall of 2000.
The three-parish project in Orland Hills recently was given the full blessing of Cardinal Francis George, and the pastors who have lobbied for the school for years allowed themselves some time Friday to reflect on the change in philosophy.
“This is historic,” said Rev. William O’Mara, pastor of St. Elizabeth Seton parish, where the $8 million school will be built. It will sit on the northeast corner of 94th Avenue and 167th Street. “This is the first Catholic school being built in the archdiocese since 1966, and we think this is a positive sign that there really is an interest in Catholic education.”
More Top Picks Best Wooden Pergolas For Backyards
Plans call for St. Elizabeth Seton, St. Julie Billiart in Tinley Park and St. Francis of Assisi in Orland Park–which have no parish schools–to join forces and build a 27-classroom regional school that would serve roughly 800 students from the parishes.
After years of discussions and parish surveys about the need for a regional school in the suburbs, the archdiocese on Thursday gave final approval to a financial-aid package that includes $3 million in grants and a $5 million loan.
The move comes when the archdiocese is closing schools in some areas where school enrollment has declined. Many of the closings stem from an archdiocesan task force on Catholic schools that has been weighing the spiritual needs of parishioners with the financial realities of dwindling parish and school-age populations in some neighborhoods and communities.
The Chicago archdiocese, the largest parochial school system in the U.S., has 68 fewer elementary school buildings than a decade ago, according to Brother Donald Houde, director of administrative affairs for the Office of Catholic Education.
Currently, there are 275 Catholic grade schools in the archdiocese, which includes Cook and Lake Counties. Five will close at the end of the school year, said Houde.
Although there are no pending projects similar to Orland Hills’, Houde said the regional concept could be a viable option for other suburban parishes with fast-growing populations.
The pioneer effort is expected to be closely watched by other suburban communities where the demand for Catholic education outweighs the supply of seats. Three parishes in Naperville–St. Thomas the Apostle, St. Elizabeth Seton and St. Margaret Mary Churches–are also considering the possibility of building a regional school, according to the Diocese of Joliet.
Nationwide, more parishes are building new schools or forming what are called interparish schools, according to the National Catholic Educational Association.
The new Orland Hills school will join the 800 interparish schools that have sprung up in the U.S. since 1988, according to Robert Kealey, executive director of the association’s elementary school department.
“Some are where three or four parishes get together and build a school, and others may be where two or three each had their own school, but decided to consolidate” because of low enrollment, said Kealey. A breakdown of the figures was not immediately available.
The number of interparish schools represents 12 percent of the 7,000 Catholic grade schools in the nation, compared with 7 percent a decade ago, he said.
New school construction has been steadily increasing the past five years, Kealey said. Forty new schools have been built since 1996, he noted, and another 20 are planned for next year.
For O’Mara and the two other pastors involved in planning the new school, the task of breaking ground, tentatively scheduled for after Labor Day, is nothing compared to the chore of coordinating an administrative mechanism that will satisfy all three parishes.
Traditionally, each parish has one school which takes its name from the parish that started it, and the pastor has the ultimate say over school matters, although a school board elected by the parish helps set policy, said O’Mara.
The new regional school will have a “neutral” name, according to O’Mara. A steering committee has been formed to tackle the thornier issues of how to run a kindergarten-through-8th grade school with the three parishes getting equal input.
St. Elizabeth Seton, which is raising $2 million to complete the structure and link it to the church, will own the building because it will use it for other parish events, O’Mara said.
However all three parishes will be running the school, which will probably be steered by a board of trustees on which the pastors will serve, O’Mara said.