St. Laurence High School, an all-male institution for about a half century, plans to go coed.
The St. Laurence Board of Directors voted Monday to initially open the school to students at the all-female Queen of Peace, which recently announced it will close at the end of this school year. In the plan, St. Laurence boys will be in separate classrooms than Queen of Peace girls.
In fall 2018, St. Laurence will be open to any girl wanting to attend its school, officials said.
A letter posted on the Chicago South Side school’s website Monday stated that the school will be recruiting male and female students for the class of 2022 and invites all current students at Queen of Peace High School to enroll at St. Laurence for the 2017-2018 school year.
"The discipline and academic excellence we experienced as Vikings were never the product of an all-boys education," the letter read. "These were the products of a St. Laurence education. With the same values in place and school leaders in position, St. Laurence remains committed to providing that level of guidance to all students — male and female — to ensure our students leave St. Laurence with the skills, maturity and leadership to take on the world."
While the closure of the nearby Queen of Peace accelerated St. Laurence’s decision to go coed, the school has considered it in the past, the letter stated. The school’s 2020 strategic plan called for the board to review the option, and the letter acknowledged positives to a coed transition, including a new exchange of ideas between male and female students, higher test scores and less enrollment volatility.
St. Laurence High School polls stakeholders about possible merger with closing sister school Zak Koeske
When Queen of Peace High School in Burbank announced last month that mounting financial pressures and declining enrollment would force it to close its doors at school year’s end, the news caught students, faculty, alumni and even its brother school off guard.
Word of the closing spread quickly…
When Queen of Peace High School in Burbank announced last month that mounting financial pressures and declining enrollment would force it to close its doors at school year’s end, the news caught students, faculty, alumni and even its brother school off guard.
Word of the closing spread quickly…
(Zak Koeske)
The letter made clear that the move is not a merger or consolidation. St. Laurence will keep its name and continue to operate under the same leadership.
Current St. Laurence and Queen of Peace students will continue to receive the "single-gender education they signed up for," so current and incoming students will remain in single gender classrooms. To encourage collaboration, the school will open up before and after school activities to female students and develop a selection of coed activities.
The class of 2021 will remain single-gender, and St. Laurence will not accept students who took the Queen of Peace entrance exam in January. Moving forward, students will remain in single-gender classrooms during their freshman and sophomore years to retain elements of single-gender education, the letter stated.
The two schools invite parents of current and incoming students to attend upcoming town hall meetings to hear more about the plan and to ask questions. The meeting for St. Laurence families is Thursday at 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. The meeting for Queen of Peace families is Friday , same time.
Despite myriad challenges, Catholic school administrators remain hopeful about future Zak Koeske, Bob Rakow
Nearly 100 Catholic elementary and high schools have closed in Cook and Lake counties since 2000, according to data by Archdiocese of Chicago.
The coming closings of Queen of Peace High School in Burbank, St. Joseph School in Homewood and St. Louis de Montfort School in Oak Lawn, announced last…
Nearly 100 Catholic elementary and high schools have closed in Cook and Lake counties since 2000, according to data by Archdiocese of Chicago.
The coming closings of Queen of Peace High School in Burbank, St. Joseph School in Homewood and St. Louis de Montfort School in Oak Lawn, announced last…
(Zak Koeske, Bob Rakow)
mmccall@tribpub.com
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
