re: St. Louis King of France (BR) school to close at end of academic year

Not surprised. Those of us in the parish figured this day would come at some point. The current demographics of the parish simply can't sustain what the parish once was, especially given the current priest shortage. Same problem that closed Redemptorist.

I graduated from St. Louis in 2010, and in terms of enrollment, teacher quality and consistency, and campus safety, it was a completely different school when I started there in 2002 compared to 2010.

Enrollment plummeted while I was there from about 600 to less than 300, and we took on an increasing number of voucher students. Lots of teachers left or retired, so turnover was very high. I came into high school woefully underprepared in science because we had no steady curriculum in those subjects with so many science teachers leaving every year. It got so bad by my 7th and 8th grade year that the principal herself had to teach a lot of our science and math classes after those positions couldn't be filled. We had a lot of great, hard-working teachers that sacrificed a lot to keep our school functional, at least while I was there, and to them I will always be grateful. They made the best of a hopeless situation, in many respects.

We still have one of the best gyms in the diocese, along with good softball fields. Hopefully something can be made of those, even though the school itself will close. Father Alello is a very sharp guy, so I trust any course of action he and the diocese choose to take.