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Time to retire my name - Guerin Closing at the end of 19-20 school year

guerinfbfan

Well-Known Member
Sep 25, 2005
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Saddens me to say this but Guerin announced today that it will be closing its doors for the final time at the end of the academic year.

Feel for all the students, teachers, faculty, and countless alumni that devoted their time to Guerin.

The archdiocese should have left Mother Guerin alone in 2004 when Holy Cross closed.

Dwindling enrollment as well as the skyrocketing cost of private education, on top of years of poor management led to their demise.

Sad, sad day for the Lady Gators and Gators everywhere...
 
Saddens me to say this but Guerin announced today that it will be closing its doors for the final time at the end of the academic year.

Feel for all the students, teachers, faculty, and countless alumni that devoted their time to Guerin.

The archdiocese should have left Mother Guerin alone in 2004 when Holy Cross closed.

Dwindling enrollment as well as the skyrocketing cost of private education, on top of years of poor management led to their demise.

Sad, sad day for the Lady Gators and Gators everywhere...

I’m a St Pats guy, but you still have my deepest condolences. I really hate it when any Catholic school closes. I have missed the Battle of Belmont and always hoped that someday it would be revived.
 
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Sad to see this happen, but I'm not surprised.

I've said it before and I'll say it again...the existence of Catholic schools is a Darwinian process. It's dog eat dog out there and only the strong survive.

In my opinion, this closure could have been avoided, or at least substantially prolonged, if the two schools had merged long before Holy Cross closed and Mother Guerin went coed. Instead of merging two relatively strong schools earlier, my understanding of that situation is that merger conversations took place over the years, but both schools wanted to be the acquiring school. Neither school was willing to compromise, and nothing happened other than the beginning of death by a thousand cuts for both schools. Cross bled out before Mother Guerin, and the result is that a weakened Guerin acquired a failed Cross.

I think a common denominator of closed Catholic schools is a general failure to read the writing on the wall when it first appears and to plan accordingly and strategically and execute the plan effectively from positions of relative strength.
 
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Sad to see this happen, but I'm not surprised.

I've said it before and I'll say it again...the existence of Catholic schools is a Darwinian process. It's dog eat dog out there and only the strong survive.

In my opinion, this closure could have been avoided, or at least substantially prolonged, if the two schools had merged long before Holy Cross closed and Mother Guerin went coed. Instead of merging two relatively strong schools earlier, my understanding of that situation is that merger conversations took place over the years, but both schools wanted to be the acquiring school. So, death by a thousand cuts took place, and Cross bled out before Mother Guerin, resulting in a weakened Guerin acquiring a failed Cross.

I think a common denominator of closed Catholic schools is a general failure to read the writing on the wall when it first appears and to plan accordingly and strategically and execute the plan effectively from positions of relative strength.

Same thing happened with Laurence and Peace. They both tried to wait the other out. It has worked well for Laurence.
 
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Same thing happened with Laurence and Peace. They both tried to wait the other out. It has worked well for Laurence.

It has indeed. The reason it has is because the leadership of Laurence adapted, planned, and executed those plans. I still think, though, that Laurence would be in even better shape than it is now if both schools had willingly come together long before Peace announced it was closing.
 
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I suppose it will help out St pats?I heard rumors that they are combining with Resserection all girls school.
 
It has indeed. The reason it has is because the leadership of Laurence adapted, planned, and executed those plans. I still think, though, that Laurence would be in even better shape than it is now if both schools had willingly come together long before Peace announced it was closing.
It took years to get on sound financial footing for StL. I heard QoP carried a lot of debt, so a "merger" couldn't make sense. The way it went down appears to be the only way it was going to work. We still need to bring more QoP alums in for events. I know because I'm the son of one and married to another.
Either way, it wasn't a "cookie cutter" model that one could easily follow. Great StL leadership navigated some murky waters.
Also, absolutely keep the name. I'm sure you and/or your kids had a great experience there. And best of luck to all of the students and staff.
 
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They should've kept Holy Cross open and merged Guerin in like QOP did with St Laurence

Ramblin is right. Cross was on borrowed time in the early 2000s. Mother Guerin didnt need us. Guerin may have survived if they'd have stayed female only but we will never know.
 
I suppose it will help out St pats?I heard rumors that they are combining with Resserection all girls school.

Taft may be a big winner in all of this. Their new freshmen only campus at Irving Park & Oark Park is amazing! They have the potential to become a real player on the NW side of Chicago.
 
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Same thing happened with Laurence and Peace. They both tried to wait the other out. It has worked well for Laurence.

Biggest problem is that the leadership changed hands far too often for any stability. They had no clear vision of what they wanted the school to be. They alienated all alumni, then made a last ditch hail mary by bringing the Crusader nickname out of retirement, which in my opinion was stupid, and a large waste of much needed funds that could have been better used elsewhere. Enrollment was over 600 when I graduated in 2005, and an article published today said they were under 250 students. Unfortunately they continuously made poor decisions and did everything they could to patch the cracks rather than fix their problems.
 
One of my sons played hockey on the combined Naz/Guerin teams. I can say that the Guerin kids and parents were truly good people. It's a shame that the graduates won't have a Homecoming game to go to, to remember the great times that they had in their formative high school years.

RIP Gators.....
 
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odd fact I noticed in the Wiki page for old Holy Cross HS - I see that among the 32 current Presidents of MLB teams, 2 of them are Holy Cross grads - what are the odds?!?!? Both grads from the 70's - one is the LA Angels and the other is with the Washing Nationals
 
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One thing that kept QOP going longer is when Mt.Assisi closed in Lemont.QOP got many of those girls.They have been talking about building a bridge to have Central go all the way thru since the 70’s.I know because I lived right there.But had they done that already they said that would have increased the enrollments & perhaps QOP would still be here
 
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One thing that kept QOP going longer is when Mt.Assisi closed in Lemont.QOP got many of those girls.They have been talking about building a bridge to have Central go all the way thru since the 70’s.I know because I lived right there.But had they done that already they said that would have increased the enrollments & perhaps QOP would still be here

When Mount Assisi closed, they sent the financial aid dollars with the girls, so it was super helpful. Essentially many of those girls came as full paying students, even if the student's family wasn't coming up with the full amount. I give a lot of credit to the Mount Assisi Sisters for doing that as it had to be a huge expense, especially coming off the huge expense of winding down a school.
 
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