ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Archdiocese announced Thursday that it will close Trinity Catholic High School at the end of the 2020-21 school year.
In a press release, the archdiocese cited a "steady and dramatic drop in enrollment" and the money it would take to repair the school building, which was built in 1959.
The press release from the archdiocese said most families in the area are enrolling their children in other archdiocesan or private Catholic schools that are within 15 miles of Trinity, leading to the decrease in enrollment.
The archdiocese said it will be helping families transition to other Catholic high schools to suit the needs of their students, and faculty and staff will get help with job placement and health and retirement benefits.
While the school has only been open under the Trinity name since the 2003-04 school year, its history can be traced back to Mercy High School, which opened in 1948.
After serving students for nearly 40 years, Mercy High School merged with St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Florissant to form St. Thomas Aquinas-Mercy High School in the fall of 1985.
In 1961, the archdiocese opened Rosary High School at the current home of Trinity Catholic High School on Redman Road.
Both Rosary and St. Thomas Aquinas-Mercy continued educating students until 2003 when the archdiocese decided to combine the schools. In the fall of 2003, Trinity Catholic High School opened on the former campus of Rosary High School.
"For almost two decades Trinity Catholic High School has lived up to its rich history by providing the young men and women of North County and the surrounding areas a quality, college preparatory education featuring state-of-the-art technology, an outstanding core curriculum and a wide range of elective class offerings," the high school's website says.