$300,000 in Donations Needed by Monday to Keep St. Alphonsus School in Prosepct Heights Open

Photo credit: St. Alphonsus School website

St. Alphonsus School in Prospect Heights may be forced to close at the end of this school year if $300,000 in donations are not raised by Monday, Jan. 4. Parents and staff at the Catholic school learned of the potential closing in this past week.

As of Tuesday, $130,000 in donations had been raised, according to a post on the Keep St. Alphonsus School Open fund-raising page. The school, which is housed on a 15-acre campus at 411 Wheeling Road in Prospect Heights, has been open since 1958. The school offers classes for students from three-year-old pre-school through eighth grade.

Declining enrollment has lead to financial woes for the school. The school currently has 160 students and Church pastor Rev. Curt Lambert said the goal is to get that number closer to 220 students, according to the Daily Herald. If donations are raised to keep the school open through the end of the year officials said that would give them more time to organize an enrollment drive and hopefully bring in more students.

The Archdiocese of Chicago informed parish leaders of the potential closure just days before Christmas, the newspaper reports.

“We have to show we are valuable and can make a difference, but we need some time,” Lambert told the Daily Herald.

Read more on the Daily Herald.