Generations of students and families recently walked the halls of Perry School for the last time. They glanced into classrooms they’d sat in days or decades ago, smiled and reminisced. The Belvidere elementary school opened over 125 years ago, and now it’s closed for good.
“I want to take this time to recognize and thank some of those who worked so hard to keep Perry School open,” said former-Perry student and current Belvidere Mayor Clinton Morris, who was emotional reading a proclamation and offered a message to students struggling with the closure.
“You will remember the friendships you have made here at Perry, and these teachers who have made a difference and had a positive impact on you. They will stay with you forever," said Morris. "So, keep positive, keep your chin up, and I know that this is true, because I walked through these same doors 56 years ago.”
It was a sad day, but some parents, like Theresa Binek, were more angry than sad that the school board voted to close her kid's school.
"They pretended to give us the chance to speak when they had their minds made up the whole entire time," she said.
Binek came to the school celebration with her friend Hannah Calow. They both have kids at Perry and even-younger children excited to start there soon.
“That's my baby, and that's her baby," she said, as the kids ran around the school's front lawn. "She was supposed to start here in the fall in Kindergarten, and get Mrs. Hirsch. He was supposed to start in two years and get Mrs. Hirsch. Now they don't get that opportunity.”
Two years ago, the District 100 board considered closing Perry but voted to keep it open after public pressure.
The board cited ongoing maintenance and accessibility concerns, as well as declining enrollment. At Perry, it’s down nearly 40% since 2018.
Next year, Perry students will attend another Belvidere school based on their parents' preference and a lottery system. The future of the historic 1897 building is still unclear.
It's one of several schools in northern Illinois -- both public and private -- that just closed down, at least partially because of enrollment.
The Diocese of Rockford just closed Aquin Catholic Academy in Freeport. Aquin stopped offering high school classes two years ago, but enrollment had been falling for decades.
“It's heartbreaking,” said Dr. Kim White. She’s the superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Rockford, which includes over 30 private schools serving more than 8,000 students.
“At Aquin, there was one grade with zero students, and we had one grade with only one student," said White. "Is that really a healthy model?”
She says it’s mainly a demographic problem; just fewer school-age kids. That comes from decades of industrial decline and simply families have fewer children.
At schools like Aquin, White says no parents pay full tuition. They fundraise and the parish helps offset the cost. But, when enrollment keeps falling, it becomes harder for the church to cover the difference.
“There becomes a position where the school, in this circumstance, is at peril of perhaps forcing the parish to be at financial risk to where they can't operate," she said. "And that's something that can't happen."
Now, she says, the nearest school for Freeport students is 35 minutes away in Rockford. So, they’re trying to offer options — like a homeschool alternative — that work for families who still want a Catholic education, but can’t make that drive.
“Instruction and materials are provided for parents to do with their students at home, but then they could maybe make that drive for certain activities," said White. "For dances or for standardized testing if you want to see how your kids are doing with your home school instruction.”
She says diversifying options is a way to stay strong in the future.
“Instead of having maybe six schools in Aurora that are maybe a mile apart each that all offer the same exact thing, maybe one will service kids with learning exceptionalities, one will be a STEM academy, one might be a classical academy," she said.
Money has been tighter for private schools since the state allowed its “Invest in Kids” tax credit scholarship to end in 2023. States now have the option to opt into a new federal tax credit program, but Illinois Governor JB Pritzker hasn’t decided whether the state will join.
“I'm praying for a miracle, because it would be life-changing for the diocese as a whole, and for many families," she said.
White says it may have helped Aquin, but it wouldn’t have changed their overall demographic challenges.
She says they do have schools that are growing too. Their elementary enrollment went up last year for the first time in a decade. In fact, White says Sterling — about 40 miles south of Freeport — was their highest-growing area.
Along with Perry and Aquin, the Harlem School District in Machesney Park closed two elementary schools.
A few months ago, voters in LaMoille also chose to deactivate their high school, but the school board hasn't approved the closure.
