Five more parochial schools in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago have been slated to close or be consolidated with other schools by June, Cardinal Joseph L. Bernardin, the archbishop of Chicago, announced last week.
Mounting financial deficits already led the archdiocese to announce in January the closing of six other schools by the end of this school year. (See Education Week, Jan. 31, 1990).
Church officials also announced that five more parish churches would be closed and that 11 others would be consolidated into five parishes by June of this year or next. Thirteen parish churches were named to be closed in the January announcement.
The latest closings follow the recommendations of local planning groups that were invited to make suggestions about additional church and school closings or consolidations. Church officials said Cardinal Bernardin accepted the recommendations of the planning groups with few modifications.
In addition, church officials said nine more schools will begin to take steps that could lead to their closing or consolidation in June 1991.
The latest closings involve parishes and schools in several Chicago neighborhoods, as well as in such suburbs as Chicago Heights, Cicero, Waukegan, and North Chicago.
The California Interscholastic Federation, the state’s school-athletics governing body, has renewed its contract with Reebok International for sponsorship of state championship events.
The cif announced that Reebok will pay $1.5 million to extend its contract for three more years, through 1993.
In 1988, the cif and Reebok signed a $1.9-million deal that allowed the company to put its name on state championship events. Many other state athletic associations have since begun to seek corporate sponsors to help offset the high cost of such programs. (See Education Week, Feb. 7, 1990.)
The Texas University Interscholastic League last month signed the Coca-Cola Company as its first corporate sponsor of state high-school championship athletic events.
