Meg Frazier couldn't hold back tears as she spoke about the closing of St.

5/22/2004 9:36:00 PM by HYACYNTH FILIPPI - Peoria Journal Star

"It's a sad time," said Frazier of Peoria. "We enjoyed the school very much. We're not native to Peoria, but we got really caught up in the whole old-fashioned neighborly family feel. It's a very old-fashioned parish, in the nicest sense of the word."

After 100 years of education, St. Bernard's, a K-8 parochial school in the East Bluff, was forced to close its doors for the last time Wednesday because of low student enrollment. Monsignor Steven Rohlfs, vicar general for the Catholic Diocese of Peoria, said St. Bernard's has had declining enrollment for quite some time and nothing more could be done to keep the school alive.

"St. Bernard's tried to subsidize, along with the help of the diocese," Rohlfs said. "But it was not fiscally responsible to keep it open, especially when there are other options for children."

Rohlfs said the general sentiment from parents was sad, but understanding.

"They realize it was inevitable," he said.

Fifty years ago, the student enrollment at St. Bernard's was close to 600 in comparison to the 72 students who attended the school during the 2003-04 school year. Officials expected the enrollment to drop below 50 next year.

Rohlfs blamed changing social groups as one reason for low enrollment.

"It's simply the demographics," he said. "As Catholics move, we have to have parishes move with them."

St. Bernard's has educated many established alumni, including U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Peoria, and former Illinois Attorney General John Cassidy.

Pete Vonachen, a 1939 graduate and Peoria entrepreneur, the former owner of the Peoria Chiefs, calls the time he spent at St. Bernard's "some of the best eight years" of his life.

"It was really a pillar of the whole neighborhood, whether you were Catholic or non-Catholic," he said. "St. Bernard's was a family - all the people pitched in with ... community and church affairs. ... It was just a great place, and it's a shame that the school has to close."

Robert Lehnhauser, a 1933 St. Bernard's graduate and former Peoria mayor, said he was deeply saddened by the school's closing.

"It was a great institution," he said. "It was tremendously influential on the East Bluff area. But demographics have changed. A lot of Catholic families have moved out of the area."

Lehnhausen said he has fond memories of the school.

"I had a rich boyhood in that area. It served as the social center for the whole neighborhood," he said. "I would still take a walk down some of the streets and name where families lived. I have lots of rich memories."

Lehnhausen said perhaps the most important idea he took from St. Bernard's was the value of prayer.

"My religion has to be the central point," he said. "It's remained with me all of my life."

The Rev. James Pallardy, St. Bernard's pastor, listed many reasons for the school's closing in a letter he wrote to parishioners in February. The 45 percent student enrollment drop over the past 12 years was one of the main reasons. He also cited the parish's aging population of 375 families who could not support consistent enrollment as a factor.

Still, some residents such as Frazier and her husband, Steve Katlack, have remained faithful to St. Bernard's, sending both of their children there.

"I wish the diocese could've come up with something clever - new ways of looking at things," she said. "But they did what they've always done - there's nothing new about it. It just happens to be St. Bernard's turn."

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