St. Charles Borromeo School<\/a> and St. Patrick Academy<\/a> will close at the end of the academic year in June 2026, Bishop Jaime Soto said in a message to families.\u00a0<\/p>\n A new regional Catholic school will operate at the existing St. Robert School campus beginning in August 2026.<\/p>\n \u201cI have decided to close the schools at St. Charles Borromeo and St. Patrick Academy at the end of this academic year,\u201d Soto said. \u201cA new regional Catholic school will continue at the current St. Robert School campus, beginning next school year.\u201d<\/p>\n Soto said the decision followed prayer and consultation and cited broader enrollment challenges facing schools nationwide.<\/p>\n \u201cAll schools, public and private, are facing declining enrollment, and Catholic education is not immune to these demographic shifts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n For many families, the announcement came suddenly. Parents said they learned of the closures through an email and a video message from the diocese, leaving little time to process the decision.<\/p>\n \u201cI was really shocked,\u201d said Andrea Casillas-Chavez, an alum of St. Charles Borromeo School whose family has children enrolled. \u201cMy sister called me, almost crying, with my goddaughter crying in the background. It\u2019s been generations for our family. We\u2019ve been here since the 1980s, and now there are no clear answers about what comes next.\u201d<\/p>\n Casillas-Chavez said her family made sacrifices to keep children in Catholic education and worries families now face uncertainty without information about tuition or enrollment at the new regional school.<\/p>\n \u201cThey tell us it depends on how many students enroll, and that will determine tuition,\u201d she said. \u201cFor families that are struggling, there are no answers right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Students said the closures mean more than a campus change. Several described losing a community they expected to stay part of through graduation.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy are you doing this to us?\u201d one student said. \u201cWe\u2019re just young. We\u2019re just kids. We don\u2019t deserve to have this.\u201d<\/p>\n Another student said the news made them cry because of family ties to the school.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis is our school, and we really love this school,\u201d the student said. \u201cMy mom went here when she was little, and I just want to be the same and graduate.\u201d<\/p>\n Following the announcement, the diocese held an informational meeting for parents on Wednesday night. Parents reported feeling frustrated and without clear guidance.<\/p>\n \u201cI tried to ask questions to the board, but you have over 120 people in a gym trying to ask questions,\u201d said Walter Sarabia, a parent at St. Patrick Academy. \u201cThey give us an hour, and when six o\u2019clock hit, they were sure enough to get out and leave us all hanging dry.\u201d<\/p>\n Sarabia said parents are worried about class sizes, staffing and whether students will be accepted into other Catholic schools.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s going to happen with our kids? What\u2019s going to happen with our future?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Another parent, Yuri Ramirez-Villanueva, said diocesan leadership was not present to address concerns directly.<\/p>\n \u201cThe people who made the decision to close the school did not show face, did not come here to give us the answer,\u201d Ramirez-Villanueva said. Later, she said the decision had affected her trust in church leadership. \u201cThe diocese has turned its back on us, and I\u2019m just trying to figure out if I want to keep supporting the people who did that.\u201d<\/p>\n Soto acknowledged the emotional toll of the decision in his message to families.<\/p>\n \u201cChange is never easy, especially when it touches our children,\u201d he said. \u201cBut as people of faith, we trust that God walks with us even in moments of uncertainty.\u201d<\/p>\n The Diocese of Sacramento said more details about the new regional school will be shared during informational meetings for parents, though officials said those meetings are closed to the press. Another parent meeting is scheduled for Thursday evening at St. Patrick Academy.<\/p>\n The diocese did not respond to questions about tuition rates, enrollment capacity, class sizes, or the selection of the St. Robert campus for consolidation.<\/p>\n ABC10: Watch, Download, Read<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two Catholic schools in south Sacramento will close in June 2026 due to declining enrollment, consolidating into a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":{"0":"post-165177","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sacramento","8":"tag-sacramento","9":"tag-sacramento-headlines","10":"tag-sacramento-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/eacac401-1fab-4a90-86e7-142399cdb881_16x9.jpg\"\/)
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