Dear Parishioners,

Due to significant financial stresses and a steep decline in enrollment, it has been announced that St. Joseph Parish Elementary School in Cuyahoga Falls will be closing in June at the end of the current academic year. News of this closing brings with it a deep sense of sadness because for nearly 100 years St. Joseph Parish Catholic School has been educating children from Cuyahoga Falls and surrounding communities.

Fortunately, our school is in relative close proximity to St. Joseph School and has the capacity to accept any students from St. Joseph School whose parents might wish to send their children here. We have reached out to the administrators at St. Joseph School to offer assistance in helping their students find a home at our school. Consequently, students from St. Joseph School will be offered seats at our school at the parishioner tuition rate.

We look forward to creating a welcoming pathway for the students of St. Joseph School during this time of change. We ask your support to ensure students who choose our school experience a smooth transition and develop an enduring sense of pride in their new school. Please know IHM will continue to be committed to small classroom size.

As we are in this Easter Season, we know that from suffering and death comes resurrection. I fully believe that while there will be much sadness in closing a school, it will offer a challenge to raise up and reimagine Catholic Schools and how our parish supports students. Bishop Malesic has directed me and others to enter into a collaborative process with neighboring Catholic parishes and schools to proactively create a plan to assure irresistibly Catholic, academically excellent Catholic schools are accessible for all who desire to attend in the surrounding communities. Our parish will be an equal participant in this process. Conversation has already begun, and a formal process is planned to begin in the fall of 2022.

Please reach out to our school leadership if you have any questions or are able to assist in our efforts to create a welcoming new home for the students from St. Joseph Parish School.

Thank you for your continuing support of Catholic education and our parish school. Pope Francis said it best when he said, “The education of children and young people is such an important task in forming them as free and responsible human beings. It affirms their dignity as an inalienable gift that flows from our original creation as children made in the image and likeness of God. And because education truly forms human beings, it is especially the duty of and responsibility of the Church, who is called to serve humankind from the heart of God in such a way that no other institution can.”

Many Blessings,

Fr. Jim