St. Zachary School in Des Plaines to close after 61 years
A Roman Catholic elementary school in Des Plaines will close for good at the end of the current school year, the Archdiocese of Chicago confirmed Tuesday.
St. Zachary School, 567 W. Algonquin Road, is shuttering because of low enrollment, said Katie O’Dea, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese’s Office of Catholic Schools. Only 20 students were signed up to attend classes there in the 2024-25 term, she said.
The decision to shut down was made by school and parish leadership, with input from the archdiocese, O’Dea said. School leaders notified parents of the pending closure last week, she said.
“It’s heartbreaking when any school closes, because they’re so important to their community,” O’Dea said.
Serving preschoolers through eighth-graders, St. Zachary School opened in 1963. It merged with Our Lady of Destiny School in 2015 as part of a diocese-wide school restructuring plan affecting schools throughout Cook and Lake counties.
However, enrollment has decreased and financial shortfalls have worsened over the last decade, school officials told parents in an email last week. A plan to merge grade levels for most classes starting in the next school year was developed, but it was rejected by parents, the email said.
“Parents were simply not comfortable with a shift to a combined classroom model and began to apply elsewhere,” the school’s email said.
News of St. Zachary’s planned closure comes about a month after the archdiocese announced it also is closing St. Bede School in Ingleside, despite fundraising efforts there that brought in about $500,000 to keep it open. As with St. Zachary, officials cited dwindling enrollment as the reason for closing the school.
Other suburban Catholic schools to close in recent years include St. Irene School in Warrenville in 2021, and St. Colette School in Rolling Meadows and St. Joseph School in Round Lake, both in 2020.