01/24/2026
Dear St. Jerome Parish Community,
It is with heavy hearts that I must share the difficult news about the closure of our St. Jerome Catholic School. We were recently informed that St. Jerome Catholic School will be closed at the end of this school year. Due to low enrollment of only 95 students, an anticipated deficit of over 450k for this school year, and despite the hard work of many individuals from our School and Parish Community, the School is no longer financially sustainable. While in my heart I struggle with this decision, I must accept it because we do not have the financial means to support the School at this time.
The loss of Government Scholarship Funds that were taken from Catholic Schools by the State of Illinois in the last couple of years affected our school families, and we lost many students as a result. Demographic trends in our area are not in our favor either. Our Parish invested over $4,500,000 in St. Jerome's Campus in the last few years. One of our hopes was that this would reverse trends at our School. Unfortunately, this did not happen. However, OUR COMMUNITY WILL CONTINUE TO ENJOY AND USE OUR PARISH CENTER for various ministries of our Parish, as well as our two school buildings on Princeton Ave and Wells St.
The Parish has always been very supportive of the school and its mission, since Adorers of the Precious Blood Sisters and the Croatian Franciscans established the School in 1922, and we are grateful to them and to all our parishioners for many decades of support toward Catholic education. However, as shown in the annual reports we published over the last couple of years, the financial burden of such a large deficit has become unbearable for the Parish at this time, and the Archdiocese decided to close the School.
This afternoon, we shared this news with our teachers and staff. Our focus now is on supporting our students, families, teachers, and staff in the future months as we reflect on the past and reconsider the future of Catholic education at our Parish. Stay tuned.
The door of our Parish and church continues to be widely open to all our students and their families. We are aware that this news will particularly affect our parishioners with children at St. Jerome School. We want to assure you that you and your children are welcome to continue serving as altar servers, lectors, ushers, cantors, and gift bearers at our church. You are our parishioners and we are not giving up on you! We want to see you in pews on Sunday. We appreciate all our School families, and St. Jerome will remain your spiritual home.
To everyone who has been part of the St. Jerome School community, our dedicated families, volunteers, educators, alumni, fellow-parishioners, and generous donors, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Your steadfast support has made St. Jerome School such a special place since our doors first opened in 1922. While we mourn, we know that the spirit and an amazing legacy of St. Jerome School will live on in the hearts of our students, alumni, and our Parish community for years to come. We plan to establish an Alumni Families Association to help us preserve the legacy of our School within our larger parish community, and we will share this information with you soon.
In the months ahead, we want to make the remainder of this school year a celebration of our school community's 104-year-long and proud legacy. Together, we will honor the memories, friendships, and faith that have made St. Jerome School a place like no other. Here at St. Jerome’s, we believe in Catholic education. For that reason, I plan to look into other options to continue the important mission of Catholic education at St. Jerome’s Parish.
With gratitude and faith,
Fr. Antonio Musa, OFM
Your Pastor
