When students at Our Lady Queen of Peace School in House Springs gather their belongings and walk out the door on the last day of school next month, they will head off in new directions.
The school, which is 53 years old, is closing for good on May 23 because of declining enrollment, said the Rev. Dennis Schmidt, the church’s pastor.
“In the early 2000s we had over 200 students,” he said. “We’ve had a steady decline since then.”
During the 2018-2019 school year, only 57 students were enrolled. To make the most of the school’s resources, classes were doubled up with two grades assigned to each classroom teacher, Schmidt said.
The parish hoped to save the school, which enrolls students in kindergarten through eighth grade, with a five-year plan to build enrollment. However, registration held this spring for the 2019-2020 school year again showed a decline, with only 46 students signed up, he said.
“The plan depended on maintaining enrollment or showing growth this year,” Schmidt said.
“This has been a downhill roller coaster ride that we’ve been unable to stop.”
Archbishop Robert Carlson accepted the recommendation from Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish leaders to close the school, and parishioners were notified about the decision on March 26.
“The decision was made after reviews of enrollment, finances, and building structure at Our Lady Queen of Peace which included meetings with parish councils, finance councils, the parish board of education and the archdiocesan Office of Catholic Education and Formation,” said Peter Frangie, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of St. Louis.
Schmidt said the parish has subsidized the school operation over the years by about $300,000 annually.
Our Lady Queen of Peace will hold a Farewell Carnival for students on May 10.
Parents whose children attend the school are upset about the impending closure.
Krista Gross, 46, of Cedar Hill, who attended the school as a child, has two children enrolled there, as well as one who previously graduated from the school and now attends Northwest High School.
“I’m disappointed,” she said. “I went here. This is my school. My heart is in that school.”
Gross said there are advantages to a small school environment.
“The teachers are like family and everyone works together,” she said.
Molly Schmitt, 36, of Cedar Hill also has two children in the parish school – fourth-grader Bode and first-grader Lola.
“The reasons the school is so special are the teachers and the families,” she said. “Lola has the same teacher Bode had. She is real young. We all gave her a wedding shower. We gave her a baby shower.”
Schmidt said there are many reasons a Catholic education is valuable.
“There are faith values. There is family support. The children can talk about Jesus in their classes. There are Masses for the children through the week,” he said.
The school opened in 1965, after two congregations – St. Columbkille and St. Philomena merged. St. Philomena had a school in the historic Burgess House next to the springs where the Hardees restaurant is now located on Gravois Road. Our Lady Queen of Peace Church was built in 1961, and when the parish’s school opened four years later, students marched there from the Burgess House, Schmidt said.
Today, the school has 12 employees, some full time and some part time, Schmidt said.
The St. Louis Archdiocese will try to help both staff and families, Frangie said.
“The Archdiocese of St. Louis will assist families who wish to place students into nearby Catholic schools. Placement assistance also is being offered to the staff of Our Lady Queen of Peace during this time of transition,” he said.
Both Gross and Schmitt said they are touring other Catholic schools in the area.
Nearby parish schools include St. Paul in Fenton, Sacred Heart in Eureka, St. Joseph in Imperial, Holy Child in Arnold, Good Shepherd in Hillsboro and St. Bridget of Kildare in Pacific.
Rev. Schmidt said the Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish will offer families grants to help them pay tuition at another Catholic school.
“We are willing to work with parents. We hope they stay involved,” he said.
He said the school will still be used, housing the church’s preschool program and Parish School of Religion classes for Catholic students who attend public schools.
A plan initiated about 20 years ago to build a new school and a multipurpose building will be reviewed to see whether the approximately $700,000 that has been raised for the project can be used to just build a multipurpose building, he said.
“Let’s let the dust settle from this and see what new directions we might go,” Schmidt said.
He said the parish also has seen a decline in the number of families who are members of the church, from 1,140 in 2004 to 815 now. He estimates the church currently has about 2,400 members.
Schmidt said he’s disappointed to see the school close.
“It’s sad. I’ve always been one to seek growth for churches and schools,” he said.