Two near west suburban Catholic grade schools will close in June, with church leaders blaming the loss of a state scholarship program that supported many students.
St. Frances of Rome School in Cicero and St. Odilo School in Berwyn will shut down at the end of the school year.
The Archdiocese of Chicago credited the state scholarship program Invest in Kids, which partly or fully covered tuition for low-income students, with supporting 164 students across the two schools — more than half of the students enrolled there.
Under the five-year-old program, taxpayers could earn an income tax credit by donating to scholarship funds that send lower-income students to private schools.
Invest in Kids ended on Dec. 31, 2023, and the Rev. Radek Jaszczuk, pastor of St. Frances of Rome School, said in a Thursday news release its loss created an “insurmountable gap.”
Berwyn Mayor Robert Lovero said he was saddened by the closure of St. Odilo School.
“It will be a great loss to the entire community,” Lovero said in an email. “Our city is home to excellent and diverse school districts, and we are very proud of their achievements and are confident families will have quality options for their children to excel in Berwyn.”
The Archdiocese is encouraging families to enroll their children at St. Leonard School in Berwyn or Our Lady of Charity School in Cicero. Teachers and staff at St. Frances of Rome and St. Odilo will have opportunities to relocate to other archdiocesan schools.
“In this situation, trying to sustain four schools would have jeopardized all of them in the future,” Greg Richmond, superintendent of Catholic schools, said in a release. “We are doing all that we can to keep our schools open, but the loss of the scholarship program will hurt. These may not be the last closures in our archdiocese.”
More than 40,000 students attend archdiocesan-run schools in Cook and Lake counties.
Many community members and alumni of the schools expressed their sadness on social media.
Anthony Dubicki, who graduated from St. Odilo in 1991, said the news of the closure nearly brought him to tears.
“It really was just a wonderful, wonderful way to grow up in a wonderful community,” he said. “It always felt like it was your extended family, and people looked out for you.”
