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ST. LOUIS COUNTY — St. Mark School in south ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ County will close at the end of the 2022-2023 school year, the Archdiocese of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ said Friday.

The school “has faced ongoing challenges as a result of consistent downward enrollment trends,� according to a press release.

There were 101 students in the school this year, down by nearly half over the last five years and the lowest kindergarten through eighth grade enrollment of any Catholic school in the planning area that includes much of South County for the archdiocese’s “All Things New� restructuring plan.

The eight schools in the planning area are expected to shrink to five by 2024, and St. Mark parish is likely to merge with four to five others including St. Matthias, St. Bernadette, St. Martin of Tours and St. Andrew.

The Rev. Brian Hecktor of St. Mark recommended the school’s closure to Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski after determining that cost cutting “would take away key services and resources from students and teachers and still require an unsustainable parish subsidy,� the release says.

The archdiocese is looking to reduce the number of parishes from 178 to between 70 and 90 in the plan to be announced in May. About one-third to one-half of the 85 parish grade schools are also expected to close.

The announcement of grade school closures was to come this month. But last fall, archdiocesan leaders delayed the closures to the 2024-2025 school year. A November letter to educators said that school closures could still happen “organically� as the downsizing process evolves.

“As the parish models are decided, several schools may see their teachers applying elsewhere and families choosing to enroll their children in the school where they will attend church,� reads the letter.

The goals for reducing the number of schools include:

• Raising teacher salaries, which start around $30,000.

• Increasing the student/teacher ratio from 14:1 to 25:1.

• Growing enrollment to meet building capacity. On average, the seats in grade schools are 64% filled. At St. Mark, just over half the seats were filled last year.

• Reducing the need for parishioner support. Parishioners subsidize about one-third of the archdiocese’s total school budget, or about $50 million in 2021-2022. St. Mark parishioners had to make up an operating deficit of nearly $820,000 for the school last year.

There are more than 19,000 students in kindergarten through eighth grades across the archdiocese, which covers ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ and 10 counties in eastern Missouri. Enrollment has dropped by more than half over the last two decades.

Students and staff at St. Mark will receive assistance in transferring to other Catholic schools, the archdiocese said.

The archdiocese announced in September that it would close two high schools in the city of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½, Rosati-Kain and St. Mary’s, but supporters of both schools raised funds and secure religious sponsorship to stay open as independent Catholic schools next fall.

The last Catholic grade schools to close were Most Holy Trinity in north ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½, Christ Light of the Nations in Spanish Lake and St. Joseph in Manchester, all in 2020.

Updated at 5 p.m.