All-Male Mount Carmel High School To Consider Becoming Coeducational

CHICAGO — Mount Carmel High School, one of the few remaining Catholic boys' high schools on Chicago's South Side, is pondering a move to start accepting female students in the fall of 2023. The Carmelite Order and mostly lay high school board of directors are expected to make a decision when they meet separately on Aug. 9 and Aug. 10.

School president Brendan Conroy, board of directors chair Don Barry ‘63, and Carmelite Provincial Fr. Carl Markelz, O. Carm. and chair of the Carmelite board, agreed that the question needs to be answered. Until then, the wider school community will learn of the research that has been done and share their views about the possibility of the all-male school inviting young women to join its student body.

Mount Carmel High School has served Chicago’s South and Southeast Side neighborhoods since 1900, building a legacy of educating young men from a wide variety of backgrounds, including sons of laborers, steelworkers, executives and professionals. Through the decades, parents desiring a Catholic Carmelite education of rigorous academics, discipline, faith and athletic achievement have chosen Mount Carmel for their sons. The high school has diversified ethnically, religiously, racially and economically over the last 70 years.

“As an iconic Chicago institution, Mount Carmel has from its founding embraced bold action in order to form young people to live with ‘zeal for God, for life, for learning,” said Conroy in a news release. “Our graduates are leaders in all fields. The Catholic, Carmelite values that have imbued the Mount Carmel experience for many generations deserve a continued prominent place in the educational landscape of Chicago.”

Mount Carmel claims it has consistently held its own in attracting students over the last several years, and in the past 20 years has even grown its market share of the shrinking number of students who seek an affordable, all-male, Catholic, college preparatory education. Now, after 122 years, school leaders feel strongly that it is time to proactively consider whether and how to offer that same opportunity to the young women of the families who come to 6410 S. Dante.

“The time is now to consider this, while we are strong in all aspects of the Mount Carmel experience,” said Don Barry, chair of the board of directors and a 1963 alumnus of Mount Carmel.
“Regardless of student population, the mission has always carried on. That will continue.”

The decision will be shared between the board of directors, who decide a course of action, and the board of members, comprised of Carmelite priests and brothers, who must both give their approval to make the high school coeducational. The school will continue to keep Archdiocese of Chicago Catholic Schools Superintendent Greg Richmond apprised of any decision.

“We look forward to constructive dialogue as a family of Mount Carmel,” Conroy said. “There are so many people who care deeply about the school—students, teachers and staff, alumni, parents, donors and benefactors, and we’ll be taking time with each to share and learn. All have a high interest in ensuring Mount Carmel will thrive for the next 120 years.”

Before the Order of Carmelites, the Mount Carmel board, and school leaders convene in August, they plan to listen to the school’s stakeholders — students, parents, employees, alumni, donors — before making their final decision about coeducation.

The high school is planning information and listening sessions this summer. Mount Carmel community stakeholders can also share their opinions and ask questions via email at MCforthefuture@mchs.org.

In 2017, at the closing of Queen of Peace High School in Burbank, female students were absorbed by the all-male St. Laurence High School. Marist High School, which opened as an all-boys high school in the Mount Greenwood neighborhood, began taking girls in 2002.

This story has been updated with new information.