Ten Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Chicago were informed over the summer by the U.S. Department of Education that they were to receive National Blue Ribbon awards this year.
“This recognition shows how Catholic schools throughout Chicago and its suburbs are providing an excellent, well-rounded education for students,” said archdiocesan schools Superintendent Greg Richmond in a statement. “The students and educators in these 10 schools worked hard to achieve this level of excellence.”
The schools are: Our Lady of Mount Carmel Academy (Belmont Avenue); Regina Dominican High School, Wilmette; St. Giles School, Oak Park; St. Matthias School; St. Therese Chinese Catholic School; St. John of the Cross Parish School, Western Springs; St. Norbert School, Northbrook; St. Anne Catholic School, Barrington; the Academy of Saint Joan of Arc, Evanston; and Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart, Lake Forest.
The awards, which have been given since 1982 to recognize excellence in education, go to schools who achieve reading and test scores in the top 15 percentile in the country, and no more than 50 awards are made to private schools each year.
While Catholic schools in the archdiocese are no strangers to the award — they had received 98 Blue Ribbon awards through last year — the most schools honored in any previous year was eight.
However, those who were told they earned the honor this year were surprised to learn that they will not receive the recognition that normally accompanies it.
On Aug. 29, weeks after schools were notified that they would receive the award, they learned the that the National Blue Ribbon program was discontinued immediately, before the usual September announcement of recipients.
That left the schools in a confusing position, Richmond said.
“The National Blue Ribbon awards do mean a lot to our schools in the Archdiocese of Chicago,” he said. “It was surprising not just for us, but for many other schools around the country who were informed that they had won this award, only to have the department later announce that they would discontinue it.”
So the archdiocese issued its own media release, and schools have gone ahead with their own celebrations, with blue T-shirts and cupcakes and streamers, depending on the institution.
“The Blue Ribbon, we feel, is tremendous recognition — one of 50 schools in the country,” said Krista Gallagher, president of Regina Dominican High School in Wilmette. “Our team in the last eight to 10 years has been really dialing up our academics in a way that really put us in a great spot. We have a great program in place.”
The award, she says, recognizes the performance of students but it’s really about the strength of the entire community at the all-girls school, including faculty, staff, parents and other supporters. Regina Dominican was last recognized with a Blue Ribbon in 1992.
The school celebrated by having its students walk up the driveway Sept. 25 between faculty and staff decked out in blue, with blue streamers and confetti and blue cupcakes waiting inside, along with remarks from local elected officials.
St. Therese Chinese Catholic School, 247 W. 23rd St. in Chicago’s Chinatown neighborhood, celebrated that afternoon, with the announcement officially made by Alderman Nicole Lee, said Principal Lisa Deborah Oi.
“It’s a labor of love,” said Oi, discussing the work that goes into applying for a Blue Ribbon Award. The school was recognized in 2011 and 2018 as well. “That Blue Ribbon signifies the hard work of every student and every parent in our entire school community.”
Each student received a bright blue “three-peat” T-shirt at the assembly, and those are the shirts they will wear on field trips and out and about in the community, so everyone knows what a gem the school is, Oi said.
“I’m so proud to be the principal here because of my students,” she said. “Our students are wonderful. They are so academically focused, but they are well-rounded.”
While St. Therese leans into its emphasis on Chinese culture, St. Matthias School, 4910 N. Claremont Ave., is the only Catholic school in the archdiocese with a wall-to-wall, prekindergarten-to-eighth-grade International Baccalaureate program, said Nicole Pacholski, its principal.
St. Matthias last received a Blue Ribbon award in 1986, long before the IB program was instituted, and Pacholski said she had been working toward it since she became principal in 2022.
“I think people really recognize and identify that Blue Ribbon seal as a stamp of excellence, which it really is,” Pacholski said. “So many of our Catholic schools have achieved it once, twice, three times. It will really help our visibility: You can have excellent academics with a program that no one else has.”
In addition, St. Matthias is a diverse school community, drawing students from about 18 ZIP codes. A little more than two-thirds are Catholic, and about a quarter receive financial aid, Pacholski said.
Meg Bigane, principal of St. Giles School in Oak Park, said her school also draws from a wide area, with students from Chicago and nearby suburbs such as River Forest, Elmwood Park, Cicero and Berwyn as well as Oak Park.
“We are a collaborative community. We are a welcoming community,” Bigane said. “We have a number of transfer students every year, and by the time they’ve been here a little while, it’s like they’ve been here the whole time.”
The school also won a Blue Ribbon in 2010, she said. It will celebrate with activities the week of Oct. 13.