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celebrating holy family school: hard decisions force closure

Story by LIZ QUIRIN
Messenger editor

Holy Family Parish in Cahokia hosted a celebration of the parish school, open for the last 141 years until the close of the school year this year.

In his homily, pastor Father Paul Wienhoff spoke about the school, what it meant to the many graduates and how difficult it was to close it. At times, his voice broke with emotion as he held back tears.

"Holy Family School has been an important part of our lives, providing us with early faith formation," Father Wienhoff said. "It was not until we were older that we realized" the importance the school played in the faith lives of its graduates.

Others in the congregation wiped their eyes as he spoke.The church, almost filled to capacity, listened as he told them Sunday was a day of celebration. (Click on the photo above right for a slide show of some of the people who attended the dinner at the parish after the liturgy.)

At the end of the school year, students generally help put away materials and pack up their rooms. This year at Holy Family School in Cahokia, students were helping teachers pack up for good. The school closed at the end of this year due to falling enrollment, rising costs and a shaky economy that made fund raising difficult.

The parish will support its young parishioners who wish to continue attending a Catholic school, with some of them indicating they will enroll at St. James School in Millstadt. Others said they would enroll at Immaculate Conception School in Columbia.

In his homily on the last day of school, pastor Father Paul Wienhoff talked to the students about the school, its founding, the emotions roiling just beneath the surface for students, staff and parents.

“For all of us this day is sad,” Father Wienhoff said. However, he reminded all of them they were “still part of a great and long history of students who have attended the school for 141 years.”

Principal, Lindy Graves, also a Holy Family parishioner, had been at the school for 18 years, first as an aid while she worked on her degree, then as a teacher, and finally as principal.

Closing the school was difficult for many on the staff including the cooks, Corrine Tenholder and Maria Alvarado.

Tenholder’s children and grandchildren attended the school and Alvarado’s children did too.
“I loved it here,” Alvarado said. “It has been good, real good.”

For parish council members and trustees, the research led to inevitable conclusions. The revenue could no longer sustain the school. With 72 students, almost half non-Catholic, decreases in Bingo revenues that supported the school, fewer young Catholic families in the parish and declining parish revenues, the decision to close the school was made.

“It was extremely difficult” to make the decision, parish council member, Kathy Carron said. Carron is a 1973 graduate of the school; her husband and her children also went to the school.

“It’s been a huge part of my life,” she said. “The school has always
been there; I understand, but it’s extremely hard to let go.”

However, it became clear, given the present economy, that
businesses and alumni that would like to support fund raising for the school, just couldn’t do it.

Carron remembers her time at Holy Family School as busy and crowded with 35-40 children in her first grade class.
Clara Watts and her sister, Elsie Anderson, attended the school. Watts said she can trace her ancestry to 1607, before the parish — founded in 1699 — was erected.

Her father also attended the school, and she remembers her days in the Jarrot Mansion where students attended school before a formal school was built.

The building had three rooms, Watts said, with the lower grades on the second floor, the upper grades on the first floor and the sisters living in the third room.

At 85, Watts, a 1939 graduate, said, she remembers her father driving her and her siblings to school every morning and picking them up in the afternoon.

“We all gathered in the classroom and Sister Vita ASC had us march to Mass with our hands folded,” she said. “We prayed our way to church.”

Besides classes, Watts said the students helped the sisters with their garden during recess.
“We’re so sad that the school is closing, she said. “I always prayed children would go to Catholic schools to learn about their faith.”

Watts said the sisters were “so dedicated; they instilled in us such values and taught us how to pray.”

Watts said her history is tied to the parish; family members were baptized, married and buried through the parish.
Another graduate and parish trustee, Kathy Odum, also has fond memories of the school. One of nine children, Odum said she and all of her brothers and sisters graduated from Holy Family.

However, she said the parish had a “hard decision” to make. Many questions were raised during months of meetings before a decision was made: “What’s the magic number to keep the school open?” was a frequent question.

In a Feb. 19 letter written to Bishop Edward Braxton, Father Wienhoff wrote of the school’s history, the changing demographics of the city and the Catholic population and the declining enrollment at the school.

The school, established in 1836, was staffed by Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondolet until 1856 when they left because of the frequent flooding in the area. It reopened in 1889 with the Adorers of the Blood of Christ from Ruma as teachers. For years the school flourished; a real school building was constructed and because of the growth, St. Catherine Labouré Parish was established, also with a school.

Fortunes eventually reversed; St. Catherine’s School was merged with Holy Family to form Corpus Christi School. In 2006, St. Catherine’s Parish was suppressed, and the school was again named Holy Family in 2009.

Enrollment and revenue were constant worries at the school. Classes were combined, and extracurricular activities and sports were dropped.

Being fiscally responsible and a good steward of the finances of the parish, Father Wienhoff convened meetings of the parish council, the school board and the finance council to see what could be worked out.

In the end, the parish groups shouldered their responsibility and recommended the school be closed at the end of the year, and Father Wienhoff concurred, sending the recommendation on to the bishop.

This has been “hard” for the students, the teachers, parishioners and graduates of the school, but the decision was unavoidable, Father Wienhoff said.

“Providing a Catholic education for our children has always been a high priority for Holy Family Parish,” Father Wienhoff wrote to the bishop.

So many important issues surfaced during conversations at the meetings. “We had to put feelings aside and do what was practical,” Odum said. “I hate being practical.”

To celebrate its history of passing on the faith through its Catholic school, Holy Family is hosting a special program and lunch following the 10 a.m. liturgy June 27. Everyone is invited to attend at no cost.