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May
26 , 2005
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After 149 years, St. Louis School,
Caledonia closing
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Area's
growth translate into higher enrollment |
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CALEDONIA
— A growing area of Racine County has not
grown fast enough to save St. Louis School.
Fr. Mark Danczyk, pastor of St. Louis Parish,
told parishioners at Masses May 21 and 22 that
the school would close when the academic year
ended June 9.
“People have expected this for years,”
Fr. Danczyk told the Catholic Herald. “It
was just a matter of when it was going to happen.”
Over the last 25 years, he noted, enrollment had
been dropping by about 10 students per year. He
added that parishioners had told him “even
20 years ago they were talking about this (closing).”
The school’s current K-8 enrollment is 44,
with some grades having as few as three students.
Kindergarten, the only grade that was not part
of a double grade, had six students. The projected
numbers for what would have been the 2005-2006
school year were even less encouraging.
“About six weeks ago, we had 19 registered,”
the priest said. “Two weeks ago, it was
at nine.”
Franciscan Sr. Kathryn Dean Strandell said that
during her three years as principal of the school
it was a “struggle to get people to enroll
their children.”
“The underlying theme since I came here
has been ‘The school is going to close,’”
she said. “We’ve been living under
it for three years; it was ongoing.”
Sr. Strandell, whose religious community established
the school in 1846, praised the parents of the
school’s children.“We have wonderful
parents,” she said. “They raised $100,000
in two years,” she said. “They wanted
their school here, but it (all the fundraising)
got to be a little too much.”
Sr. Strandell said that the closing has been “really
hard” on the parents.
“Even the ones who have been doing everything
had to reconcile themselves to the fact that whatever
happened, happened,” she said. “It
wasn’t due to them.”
The decision to close the school came on a vote
of 9-3 by the pastor, parish council members,
and parish trustees. The council has agreed to
provide scholarship money for students who will
attend school at St. Matthew, Oak Creek; St. Rita,
Racine; or Sacred Heart, Racine. Students who
do not attend a Catholic school will receive their
faith formation through the parish religious education
program.
In a letter to Fr. Danczyk, Archbishop Timothy
M. Dolan said he “regretfully accepts the
decision” to close the school, and assured
the priest that staff from the archdiocesan central
offices would assist the parish during the time
of transition.
Asked why an area that is becoming dotted with
subdivisions didn’t have enough students
to sustain a school, Fr. Danczyk replied, “We
wish we knew the answer to that.”
The priest said that should the area continue
to develop over the next three to four years,
and the need for a Catholic school be evident,
it could reopen.
“I told the people that just because it
is closing doesn’t mean it will stay closed
forever,” he said. |
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