St. Benedict Preparatory School closes high school

St. Benedict Preparatory School will be shuttering its high school due to low enrollment, the Archdiocese of Chicago announced Friday.

A steady enrollment decline of students in grades 9-12 was a financial strain at the school at 3900 N. Leavitt, Archdiocese officials said in a statement.

Currently, there are only 103 high school students, while 761 students are enrolled in preschool through eighth grade.

For the next two years, the high school will remain open so current junior and senior classes can graduate. But freshman will not be accepted into the program, which affects 12 students who took entrance exams in January. Eleven sophomores will transfer to another Catholic high school, according to the statement.

After the junior class graduates at the end of the 2018-2019 school year, the school will officially close.

“This has been a very difficult decision,” St. Benedict Head of Parish School Rachel Gemo said in a statement.

“We want to thank the thousands of alumni who have walked the halls of St. Benedict Preparatory School.”