After 122 years as an all-boys school, Mount Carmel High School considers going coed in 2023

A Woodlawn Catholic high school announced last week that it is considering coeducation after 122 years of being an all-boys school.

In an announcement on the school’s website on Thursday that was shared via social media, Mount Carmel High School said it will make the final decision on Aug. 9-10 when the school’s board of directors and board of members meet.

“Since 1900, Mount Carmel has built a legacy of educating young men from a wide variety of backgrounds … Thus, 122 years later, school leaders feel strongly that it is time to proactively consider whether and how to offer that same opportunity to the young women of the families who come to 6410 S. Dante,” the announcement said.

If the decision to become coed is finalized, Mount Carmel, which Michelle Obama’s older brother, Craig Robinson, attended, would follow St. Laurence High School, a Chicagoland Catholic school that became coed in fall 2018.

Mount Carmel President Brendan Conroy told the Chicago Tribune that while the school is “in a strong position right now,” the consideration is motivated by enrollment trends in Chicago’s archdiocese. Current Mount Carmel enrollment is approximately 600 students, according to the school’s website.

“The number of students in archdiocesan schools is a challenge,” he said, citing rising costs and smaller family sizes as contributing factors. “We want to see if we can get out in front of this with a conversation about the possibility of coeducation to see if that would be a way for us to remain strong in the archdiocese.”

Conroy said that responses from the community have been from “all ends of the spectrum.” Reaction on the school’s Facebook page has been more one-sided, with many of the comments opposing coeducation, citing the school’s motto: “You come to Carmel as a Boy. If you care to struggle and work at it, you will leave as a Man.”

To that, Conroy said the school’s student body has changed over time in terms of the student’s identities, religiousness and geographic reach. “There have been evolutions of Mount Carmel and still we’ll hang on to that mission and tradition of who we are,” he said.

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Michele Russo, parent of a rising senior and a rising sophomore at Mount Carmel, strongly opposes not only the possibility of coeducation at Mount Carmel, but the way the decision is being made.

“This is such a huge decision, and you’re gonna make it within a six- to eight-week (time frame)? (Compared) to how long it has been all boys? It’s not right,” she said.

Russo, whose kids commute to the school from northwest Indiana, said her oldest was interested in Mount Carmel because of the sports but the family was drawn in because of the school’s mission.

“They (made) a big deal about how boys learn different than girls, which was really big because my youngest has ADHD and I was not getting any support from the public school in regard to that,” she said.

Russo said her youngest son likes the school as it is now, and told her that he might prefer to finish his high school education closer to home if Mount Carmel becomes coed.

The school is holding virtual and in-person listening sessions for various stakeholders ahead of the final decision date.

“I want the whole Mount Carmel community to have an opportunity to voice what their positive, neutral or negative feelings are about this,” Conroy said.