FAIRBURY - The building itself may not have seen its last students, but St. Michael’s School in Fairbury has ended its run after 85 years.
“It’s been here 85 years. It was an institution in this town,” St. Michael’s Church Father Kenneth Hoesing said.
But church records tell the tale as to why the church could no longer afford to have a parish school.
“There are no children in the parish to put into it, so we could no longer maintain the school,” Hoesing said. “I’ve been here four years and we’ve had just a handful of baptisms and one wedding.”
He said just like many communities in the area, Fairbury’s population is aging and with that, the church’s membership.
“There are just no kids in the parish to put through a parish school,” Hoesing said.
He said this year the school had 17 students in grades kindergarten through fourth, and most of them were not Catholic.
“We had a good group of students, invested parents and a quality group of teachers,” Hoesing said.
He said 20 years ago the school offered classes for kindergarten through eighth grade and at one time, in the 1930s and 1940s, may have extended to ninth and 10th grade.
Hoesing said the end of the last day of school on Monday was tough, as teachers, parents and students left the school for the last time.
“A lot of people wondered how we were able to stay around so long,” he said, adding that the community’s response to the school’s closing, from both Catholics and non-Catholics was surprising.
The school building was built in 1923 and will be kept around.
“We’ll keep the building, the public school has already asked about renting it out for next year,” he said.