Families of Bolingbrook school planning peaceful protest on Friday

Parents and others who love St. Dominic Catholic School in Bolingbrook are planning to peacefully protest its closing on Friday.

Margaret Fiore of Bolingbrook, grandmother to three students who attend the school — and a fourth who would be entering its pre-K program — said the peaceful protest will be held 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Friday. The plan was to meet at 349 S. Weber Road in Romeoville and then drive to the Diocese of Joliet office in Crest Hill.

The Diocese of Joliet announced on Friday that St. Dominic Catholic School would close at the end of the 2021-22 academic year on May 27, because of declining enrollment.

“The decision to close a school is never easy,” Mary Massingale, spokesperson for the Diocese of Joliet, said in an email. “Parents were notified as soon as possible.”

Fiore said the news caught families at St. Dominic by surprise.

“The diocese came in Friday and said they were closing the school,” Fiore said. “But the strange thing is, we never had any warning. We were never on any kind of watch list. We never had a notice that the school was in trouble so that maybe we could do something to help.”

Are finances the issue?

The school’s financial support comes from tuition and subsidies from two Bolingbrook churches, St. Dominic Parish and St. Francis of Assisi Parish, according to a news release from the Diocese of Joliet.

According to Mary Massingale, spokesperson for the diocese, the Diocese of Joliet doesn’t have a financial watch list, such as exists with public schools.

Fiore said two of the school’s donors contacted the diocese and offered to cover any money shortages.

“The diocese said, ‘no,’” Fiore said. “The diocese had no interest.”

But Massingale said one parent had simply asked the school’s principal “what it would take” to compensate for the shortages.

Fiore said other St. Dominic family members unsuccessfully tried scheduling a meeting with Bishop Ronald A. Hicks. She feels families haven’t received the entire truth about the school’s closure.

“We are just wondering what [the reason] can be,” Fiore said. “It can’t be finances. We’ve got the money to give them. They won’t take it. "

Dwindling enrollment

A news release from the Diocese of Joliet on Friday said St. Dominic opened in 1966 and currently serves 165 students in grades pre-K through eight, a decline from the start of the 2021-22 school year, the release said.

Enrollment has dropped by 31% since 2016, the release said. Student enrollment for the academic year is tallied on the sixth day of classes. In 2016 enrollment was 253. In 2021, it was 175.

Just 140 students have registered for the fall, the release said. The enrollment goal for the 2022-23 school year was 169 to 178.

But that doesn’t make sense to Fiore since registration continues throughout the summer.

“We’ve got a nice pre-K program,” Fiore said. “People sign their children up for that.”

Fiore said parents who received tuition scholarships were told they must reapply, that the scholarships were for St. Dominic only. Fiore said she’s concerned those families will wind up “at the bottom of the list.”

Massingale said these are Tax Credit Scholarships, which the Illinois legislature created in 2017 through the Invest in Kids Act. Massingale said she is not aware of if those scholarships can transfer with the students or not.

The Diocese of Joliet will give current St. Dominic students in grades kindergarten to seven a $500 Closed School Grant on two conditions, the release said. Nearby schools include St. Scholastica Parish School in Woodridge and St. Andrew the Apostle School in Romeoville.

The student must enroll in a diocesan school for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years, and the family’s tuition balance at St. Dominic must be paid in full, the release said.

In addition, the diocese’s Catholic school office “will work with St. Dominic’s staff on placement opportunities,” the release said. Currently, St. Dominic has 14 full-time and 10 part-time employees.

Fiore praised the family atmosphere at the school. She said everyone is friendly and works together. Fiore said the principal, Sister Marie Isaac stands outside every day to personally greet the students.

“Rain, snow – she’s out there welcoming all the students to the school that day,” Fiore said.

St. Dominic is not the only Will County school in the diocese to recently close.

“St. Rose Catholic School in Wilmington closed at the end of the 2019-20 school year, effective June 30, 2020, due to declining enrollment,” Massingale said in a written statement. “Some students transferred to St. Joseph Catholic School in Manhattan. St. Rose faculty found new positions in other diocesan schools or other schools.”