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ST. CLAIR SHORES — A little over two years ago, St. Germaine Catholic School in St. Clair Shores closed its doors at the end of the academic year after a fundraising effort by school families and the St. Clair Shores community apparently came up short.
Parents received notice about the planned closure in mid-January 2024. A February 2024 article published by C & G Newspapers said the Rev. Joe Barron wrote in a letter sent on Jan. 16 that the school near Martin Road and Little Mack Avenue had been running at a deficit of around $150,000 for many years.
He also stated in the letter that the Our Lady of Hope Parish had subsidized the deficit, which was possible due to money gained from the sale of the St. Gertrude campus, but that the funds, at that point, had run out. Barron said the other part of the subsidy was taken from the regular operating budget of the parish “often in lieu of paying other bills.”
The article later stated many efforts were made to alleviate the deficit including textbook fundraisers, lowered teacher salaries and more.
In February 2024, parents and other community members were informed of a proposal created by one of the parents at St. Germaine and allowed by the administration. The proposal required the school to hit an enrollment of 150 students, raise $150,000 in donations and $150,000 in pledged funds for the future to save the school. The deadline given to parents at an informational meeting on Feb. 15, 2024, was March 1, 2024.
Over the course of the two weeks, the community came together to raise money by hosting fundraisers at local businesses and other means. According to previous reporting in the Sentinel, the community raised $355,000 and pledged $180,000. An anonymous person also donated $100,000 to the cause.
However, despite the efforts, the Archdiocese of Detroit announced the school’s closure on March 25, 2024, at the beginning of Holy Week in the Catholic calendar leading up to Easter Sunday.
As of March 2026, the parish attached to the school, Our Lady of Hope, is open and Lakeview Public Schools is currently renting out the former St. Germaine school building for its administrative operations.
When it closed in 2024, the school had been open for 60 years.
Holly Fournier, associate director of communications for the Archdiocese of Detroit, said in an email around 70% of the St. Germaine student population stayed in Catholic schools.
“Other families chose non-Catholic private schools, public schools, and home schooling,” the email from Feb. 6 stated. “As promised, all funds raised in (2024) were returned to donors.”
Susie and David Taylor were the music directors at Our Lady of Hope Parish. They became the directors of music at St. Blase Catholic Church in Sterling Heights in 2025. Some choir members and parishioners followed Susie and David in their move.
They both agreed that some St. Germaine students went to other Catholic parishes in St. Clair Shores, others went to public schools and others opted for home schooling.
David said he didn’t want to speak for them, but that he thinks a lot of the families didn’t want to have anything to do with the Catholic church or parochial schools because of the treatment they received.
“It got pretty ugly fast,” David said.
“I think when it came down to it, I think a lot of it had to do with money,” Susie said. “St. Germaine, I don’t remember what the tuition was, but I know when they closed, wherever they went, there was going to be a big difference in tuition dollars.”
She went on to say she knows a few families decided to homeschool due to the cost.
She said she doesn’t know much more about the school’s students and that she doesn’t know where the teachers are.
Susie said the parish and the school were still grieving the loss of the Rev. James Bjorum, known as Father Jim, who passed away in 2023, when they received notice of the school’s closure. She said everyone has a different take on the grief accompanied with his death. Father Jim was Susie’s friend and boss.
“I was thinking, ‘Oh, my goodness, his death not only impacted our community of faith, but the school,’” Susie said. “It’s hard to even process, where do you go from there? It was very sad. He had just died, and they had pulled the rug out essentially from under the school.”
David said it was only a couple of weeks later when they met to discuss the closure and Susie said it was a very sad and shocking thing.
“They didn’t handle it very well,” David said. “They could have handled it better, but, you know, they were trying to just, ‘Well, we got to rip the Band-Aid off.’”
Susie said there were no winners in that situation.
She said she still keeps in contact with people from St. Germaine and Our Lady of Hope, including a previous teacher in her adult theater program. She said she believes most of them have moved on, but that it is still a fresh wound.
“Basically, all those people, all the teachers, were told they weren’t going to have a job, parents lost their school, administration lost their jobs and, yeah, it was very hard to watch,” Susie said.
Susie said the move from Our Lady of Hope to St. Blase was a big decision when staff from St. Blase approached them for the position. The previous director of music at St. Blase retired in 2025.
“It was a lot of praying because we really loved being where we were, but the trajectory of where that parish will lead, end up, rather,” Susie said. “I mean without a priest and they’re not going to assign a new priest.”
“The writing was kind of on the wall,” David said.
David and Susie stayed until the beginning of the next year on July 1 but worries about the future of the parish still lingered. Susie said they have nothing but love for Our Lady of Hope and the people there.
“It was a family for us,” Susie said. “And it was a very hard decision to make, to go.”
Susie said she is thrilled Our Lady of Hope is still open and that she hopes it stays that way, but that it all depends on the number of priests.
In late 2025, the Archdiocese of Detroit announced a restructuring of the Catholic church nationwide. This comes after the parishioner population decreased from 1.5 million to 900,000. Intentions are to close or merge parishes together. The Archdiocese of Gaylord has already started the process.
