HILLSBORO — Good Shepherd Catholic School will close at the end of this school year, the Archdiocese of ºüÀêÊÓƵ said Friday.
“Good Shepherd School in Hillsboro has been providing Catholic education in the heart of Jefferson County for the last 75 years. Over the last several years, however, the parish has faced the growing challenge of maintaining a small school with increasing costs and decreasing revenue,†reads a statement from Archbishop Mitchell T. Rozanski.
There are 74 students in the school this year, up by 3% over the past five years but the lowest enrollment of any Catholic grade school in Jefferson County.
The Rev. Ryan Weber of Good Shepherd recommended the school’s closure to Rozanski after determining that funding the school was not sustainable. The 30-student preschool will remain open, according to the archdiocese.
People are also reading…
The archdiocese is looking to create 70 to 90 groups of parishes, out of the 178 total, that will share one pastor under its “All Things New†restructuring plan to be released next month. According to draft models of the plan, Good Shepherd parish is likely to share a pastor with Our Lady in Festus and Sacred Heart in Crystal City.
An announcement of grade school closures under “All Things New†was to come earlier this year. But last fall, archdiocesan leaders delayed the closures to the 2024-2025 school year. A November letter to educators said that school closures could still happen “organically†as the downsizing process evolves.
In January, the archdiocese announced that St. Mark school in south ºüÀêÊÓƵ County will also close at the end of the school year.
The goals for reducing the number of schools include:
• Raising teacher salaries, which start around $30,000.
• Increasing the student/teacher ratio from 14:1 to 25:1.
• Growing enrollment to meet building capacity. On average, the seats in grade schools are 64% filled. At Good Shepherd, about half the seats were filled this year.
• Reducing the need for parishioner support. Good Shepherd parishioners had to make up an operating deficit of nearly $233,000 for the school last year.
There are more than 19,000 students in kindergarten through eighth grades across the archdiocese, which covers ºüÀêÊÓƵ and 10 counties in eastern Missouri. Enrollment has dropped by more than half over the past two decades.
Students and staff at Good Shepherd will receive assistance in transferring to other Catholic schools, the archdiocese said.