By Igor Studenkov | Bugle Staff
nweditor@buglenewspapers.com
@NilesILNews
This year, St. John Brebeuf Parish School marked its 60-year anniversary – a significant milestone for the Catholic elementary school that has become a community institution.
Since opening its doors in 1955, the school has grown considerably and it continues to adjust its academic programs to ensure they stay current with the times. But through it all, St. John Brebeuf educators always strove to provide a strong, academically rigorous Catholic education that would serve the students well no matter what path they wanted to pursue. Officials say that it is this foundation – along with strong community support – that allowed the school to last as long as it did. It is something that they hope will remain true in decades to come.
The construction of the school started in 1954, only a year after the parish was created. At the time, Niles’ Catholic population was growing as many Polish-Americans moved in from Chicago. The closest churches were St. Juliana’s in Chicago and St. Paul of the Cross in Park Ridge, and the Chicago cardinal at the time felt that Niles needed a parish in the community.
Sandie Beierwaltes is a St. John Brebeuf graduate who worked at the Bugle before becoming a teacher in her former school. She studied the school’s history extensively and said that SJB grew fairly quickly, despite a modest stat.
“St. John Brebeuf School opened on Sept. 15, 1955, with 12 classrooms, six sisters, two lay teachers, and 420 children,” Beierwaltes said. “By 1956, 1,000 families belonged to the parish and 550 children were enrolled in the school.”
That year, six more classrooms had to be added to accommodate the growing student body. But, Beierwaltes said even that wasn’t enough.
“By 1961, the school population had grown so large that the primary grades were split into two sessions, one group attending in the morning and the other group in the afternoon,” she said. “ In 1962, 12 more classroom were added to accommodate 1,470 children. The last addition to the school was added in 1964, and the school now had 38 classrooms.”
She added that at first, the school building doubled as a convent and a rectory. A separate church wasn’t built until 1966.
St. John Brebeuf had students in first through eighth grade from the beginning, but it didn’t have a kindergarten until 1976.
“Before this time, children attended local public schools for kindergarten and then transferred to St. John’s in first grade,” said Beierwaltes. “There was a huge interest from the parents to have a kindergarten at SJB who wanted their children to receive a Catholic education at an earlier age.”
She said that the school has always tried to respond to parents’ needs. In 1985, it launched an extended day program – a boon for working parents who couldn’t pick up their children when the school day ended.
Beierwaltes also told the Bugle that St. John Brebeuf always worked to provide students with opportunities to help their community. It formed Cub Scout Pack 175 and Boy Scout Troop 175 in 1958 and 1963, respectively. In 1985, the school started a local branch of the Junior St. Vincent DePaul Society – a Catholic society that was founded in 1833 to serve the poor. According to the parish website, the society is open to students and parish youth in general. Among other things, it holds canned food drives and annual “baby shower” drives, where students collect infant and children’s items.
Beierwaltes said that over the past six decades, the school has always tried to keep its instructional methods current.
“In the early years of the school, students were mostly instructed through lecture. Children were often ability-grouped,” she said. “Nowadays, instruction is differentiated to the individual learner. Students are taught in whole group and small group instruction. Learning is definitely more hands on and technology is emphasized.”
This year, the school launched a one-to-one initiative, similar to what Niles Park Ridge District 64 launched in 2014. Every student in second grade and lower will get a Nexus tablet, while 3-8 grade students will get Chromebooks.
Elise Matson, St. Brebeuf’s current principal, told the Bugle that, while the methods changed, the overall goal remain the same – to provide academically rigorous Catholic education.
“Being a Catholic school is very important to us, so we make sure we infuse Catholic identity in everything that we do,” she said. “We also we make sure that we provide a strong academic environment. We get a lot of [former] students coming back telling how well SJB prepared them for high school and beyond.”
Matson said that this foundation – along with strong community support – that had kept the school going for so long.
St. John Brebeuf continues to look for ways to improve its programs. Next year, the school will start a pilot program that would offer a more personalized learning experience. Students would still go through units, but they will be able to choose one of the several possible projects within that unit, so that they would learn about the topic in a way that better suits their interests and educational needs.
Matson said that she was proud to see St. John Brebeuf celebrate its 60th year – and she hopes that the school will celebrate many anniversaries to come.
“We’re very proud of the fact that we’ve been a Catholic community in Niles for so long,” she said. We’re very proud to have been able to serve the community for so many years. We plan on being here for another sixty years. We look forward to keep trying to improve our school and make sure our students receive high-quality Catholic education.”