School community reflects on closing of Mount Assisi

LEMONT – Staff, students and alumnae will say their official goodbye to Mount Assisi Academy during a closing ceremony Sunday.

The all-girls Catholic school run by School Sisters of St. Francis of Christ the King was founded in 1951, with the building constructed in 1954.

In January, the school announced it would be closing, citing low enrollment, an increasing budget deficit and the small number of Franciscan Sisters available to serve the school. Although administrators had mentioned possibly keeping the school open one more year for the senior class, Provincial Superior Sister Therese Ann Quigney said it was determined that wasn’t possible.

Students and alumnae were upset by the decision to close. Quigney compares the reaction to going through stages of grief and said the girls move through it at different rates.

“Some of the girls are ready to move on,” she said. “Some are still struggling with, ‘How did they do that?’ ”

Mount Assisi sophomore Katie O’Leary was one of the organizers of a candlelight vigil held in February and will be attending Queen of Peace School next year.

“I can’t say that [my feelings have] changed much,” she said. “I still feel like I’m being ripped away from my home.”

She said she thinks she was able to accomplish something by trying to keep the school open.

“I feel like it gives us some closure, knowing that we didn’t go without a fight,” she said.

Mount Assisi Principal Sister Mary Francis Werner said students spent the past couple of weeks reflecting on their time at the school.

“It has really been fabulous in the sense that the girls have been deeply appreciative of what they’ve had at Mount Assisi,” she said. “We continue to point out to them that they are not the same girls that came in the front door.”

She said the school also has been working with the students on finding a new school for next year.

Although they are in the process of moving forward, the consensus is the experience at Mount Assisi cannot be replicated. Quigney said the Franciscan Sisters bring a simplicity and personal care that you do not find everywhere.

“What we really provided for the young ladies was a sense of home where they grew into confident women,” she said.

O’Leary said she would not be able to find another campus as beautiful.

Quigney said the Franciscan Sisters do not have a definite plan for what they will do with the building.