Parents From Bolingbrook's St. Dominic Catholic School Plan Protest

BOLINGBROOK, IL — Parents seeking answers from the Diocese of Joliet after last week’s announcement that St. Dominic Catholic School will be closing at the end of the school year are having difficulty getting information from officials so they will protest peacefully on Friday in response.

Parents said they were shocked to receive word from the Diocese that St. Dominic, which opened in 1966, was being closed by the Diocese, which cites dwindling enrollment for the closure.

However, parents said that they have been told the reasoning behind closing the school isn’t because of finances. In fact, one parent who has had children at the school for the past 20 years, told Patch this week that two graduates of the school went to the Diocese and offered to cover any financial shortages which could prevent the closure and were told no by the diocese.

Parents and staff members have vowed to fight “tooth and nail” to prevent the closing. The protest will take place between 9:30 and 11:30 a.m. at the Diocese offices in Crest Hill. Organizers said that the group will meet at the old Target store in Romeoville (349 S. Weber Road) and that in the case of rain, the protest will turn into a car parade.

Joseph Ayala said that petitions have begun to circulate and that a letter-writing campaign has started to try to prevent the diocese from moving forward. He said that parents have attempted to reach Diocese officials including Bishop Ronald Hicks and Superintendent Michael Boyle, but have not heard back.

Mary Massingale, the director of communications for the Diocese of Joliet, said in an email to Patch Thursday evening that the Diocesan finance office had not received any offer for financial support. She said the St. Dominic principal had received word from a parent who asked, "what it would take."

She said that the school, like other Catholic schools, is funded by tuition, which is tied to enrollment, as well as an annual subsidy from the supporting parishes as well as fundraising. Massingale said that St. Dominic is supported by St. Dominic Parish and St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Bolingbrook.

In a letter sent to parents last week, Boyle wrote that the announcement was made with “broken hearts” but that both the Diocese and school had reached the same conclusion — that the time had come to close the school.

The school, officials said, has seen a 31 percent drop in enrollment since 2016 when there were 253 students enrolled in the school. There are currently 165 students at the school, and school officials said that there were only about 140 registered to return in the fall.

In an open letter to the Diocese and school administration, St. Dominic teacher Tara McFadyen wrote that the choice to close the school was a “knee-jerk” reaction and that said that parents would have “jumped” if a call to action would have been given. However, the abruptness of the announcement caught people off-guard and left both parents and staff members scrambling.

“You are cowards,” she wrote. “And when I think of a coward, my mind goes to Judas. You made a decision and turned your back on us.”