Marmion Academy will welcome as many as 80 freshman and sophomore girls this fall, as the nearly century-old former boys-only high school is now coed.

“It was a decision that came after a long period of research, discussion and prayerful discernment with our stakeholders,” Abbot Joel Rippinger said. “It’s a decision that had been given a great deal of counsel and input from our administration at the school and the board of trustees.”

So far, some 40 to 50 freshman and 20 to 30 sophomore girls are looking to attend Marmion in the 2026-27 school year, Rippinger said. The school will eventually have girls from freshmen through senior year.

The model will be same-sex for core classes for freshman and sophomores and coed electives. Then classes for juniors and seniors will be fully coed.

So far, 405 boys are enrolled, “and we hope to maintain that number as well,” Rippinger said.

To be clear, girls do take classes at Marmion and use their facilities, such as for the swimming pool, but they attend other schools. This fall will be the first for girls to be actual Marmion students.

The school is also renovating buildings and classrooms as it becomes coeducational, he said, as well as adding coaches for girls’ athletics.

Located at 1000 Butterfield Road, Marmion is a Catholic-Benedictine college preparatory school, founded in 1933, according to the history on its website, marmion.org.

When it partnered with the U.S. government during the Great Depression, it introduced military training, becoming known as Marmion Military Academy.

Marmion was a residential school until 2003 and stopped being a military academy in 1994. Instead, it offers Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Core, JROTC or the Leadership Education and Development program, also known as LEAD.

And that’s what prompted James Muetze of Batavia to enroll the youngest of his four daughters as a freshman at Marmion.

“Just talking with mutual friends, Marmion always got the highest remarks,” Muetze said. “Our main reasons are that it’s faith-based and leadership – its one of the only schools you can find with an emphasis on leadership.”

His daughter will join JROTC, he said.

“There are a lot of other great Catholic high schools in the area that you can drive to in an hour, but none of them have the leadership that Marmion does,” Muetze said.

Carolyn Anderson of Sugar Grove has two sons who graduated from Marmion in 2015 and 2019.

“We were very happy with how they were prepared for college,” Anderson said.

Now she plans to send her fifth-grade daughter there in a few years.

“We’re keeping an eye on things. We’d like to see how things develop for the girls at Marmion to see if it’s a successful program,” Anderson said. “If it goes well, then, definitely Marmion.”

Another factor is how Marmion has always been known for its fraternal friendships, she said.

“I want to see if they embrace that with the girls,” Anderson said.

“My boys are not happy about it,” Anderson said of the school’s becoming coed. “Too bad.”

While some objected to the change when it was announced last year, Rippinger said it was necessary.

“Any institution worth its salt changes over time,” Rippinger said. “The Benedictine Order has been around since the 6th century. We still are the people who have ownership of the school, the Benedictine Community of Marmion.”

The monastic community of Marmion made the ultimate decision to become coed, he said.

“We looked at the experience of other, similar single-sex schools in the Chicago area that had gone to coeducational,” Rippinger said.

Becoming coeducational was for Marmion’s future sustainability, and for the assurance that it would continue to do well.

“Compared with other schools that stayed single-sex – it was going to put a higher risk of sacrifice to many programs,” Rippinger said.

Despite an initially unenthusiastic reaction to the change, Rippinger said people have come around.

“There is a widespread understanding that coed is the better way to go,” Rippinger said. “‘We trust you know what you’re doing and we stand behind you.’”