St. Sebastian High School was opened as a co-ed school in St. Sebastian Parish in the fall of 1913 with a four-year academic course of study. Father Edmund Byrnes helped organize the school as well as the parish on the north side of Chicago in the Lakeview neighborhood.
With the Sisters of Charity in charge, the school graduated 15 students in the spring of 1917 for its first graduating class, with three more classes to follow before being closed in 1920 due to centralization of Catholic high schools by then-Cardinal George Mundelein. The school reopened in 1935 as two-year school, which later expanded to four years in 1940, when it was decided to become an all-girls' school in the parish grade school building.
During its lifetime, St. Sebastian always had a small enrollment around 180 students, with its peak at 190 during the mid-1960's. The school offered bi-lingual programs that served the Spanish-speaking students that came to Chicago from Puerto Rico and Cuba in the latter part of the 1950's and early 1960's, along with students that were diagnosed with behavioral problems.
The school was closed in the spring of 1979 after 23 students from a student body of 87 received their diplomas. The remaining students were assisted in transferring to either Immaculata, Madonna, and St. Benedict's, all of which were nearby Catholic schools.
According to George Fornero's dissertation about Catholic secondary schools in Chicago between 1955-1980, St. Sebastian closed due to small enrollment, increasing operating costs, inadequate facilities & equipment, lack of staff, as well as the dwindling number of teaching nuns. The school also suffered from a lack of students that lived near the school due to the neighborhood becoming more and more commercial.
From Illinoishsglorydays.com/id829.html.
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