A Catholic school community in Berks County isn't accepting the word "closed" — and they're using a playbook that already worked once to prove it.
Former officials of Immaculate Conception Academy, which shut its doors in June after years of declining enrollment and a costly building repair bill, are mounting a campaign to reopen the Union Township school as a satellite campus of St. Francis Classical Catholic Academy in Bally. The move matters because it's a concrete example of parents and parishioners refusing to let institutional decisions kill off faith-based education in their town.
Gregg Shemanski, a former Immaculate Conception school board member, is helping lead the charge alongside St. Francis officials. "They committed a lot of interest in doing this," Shemanski told the Reading Eagle. "We've met quite often at both campuses."
St. Francis knows the road well. The Allentown Diocese closed that school in 2022. It reopened in 2023 as an independent Catholic academy — no longer under diocesan control. Now the same model could revive Immaculate Conception.
An informational session is scheduled for Sunday at 3 p.m. in the former school's cafeteria at 903 Chestnut St. Shemanski said St. Francis wants to gauge interest before committing. If it moves forward, St. Francis would lease the grounds from the parish.
The financial ask is real. Net tuition — covering books, field trips, and technology — is projected at roughly $7,000 per year, up from the $5,750 rate Immaculate Conception charged in its final year, when it served 158 students. The target now is roughly 100 students for a 2026-27 opening in September.
"If we get enough students interested in it, it self-funds," Shemanski said. And they're casting a wide net: "It could be anyone from anywhere. We're gauging interest from pre-K all the way through eight."
The pattern here is clear. A diocese closes a school, citing money and enrollment. A community decides that's not the final word, severs the institutional tether, and rebuilds on independence. St. Francis already proved it can work. The question is whether enough families in Union Township will bet their tuition dollars on a second act — and whether the parish will honor a fair lease or throw up obstacles of its own.
The Aberdeen News, which also covered the region, had no reporting on the school fight, focusing instead on a high school sports retrospective — a reminder that establishment outlets often miss the stories where communities push back against institutional power.
The open question: will the Allentown Diocese, which closed both schools, help, hinder, or stay out of the way?
