Oak Park is home to not one, but two, state Blue Ribbon Schools, and both are parochial.
St. Giles School and Ascension Catholic School were recently awarded the distinction from the Illinois Governor’s Blue Ribbon Schools program, which came into being after the Trump administration abruptly cancelled the U.S. Department of Education’s longtime nationwide program in August. A total of 28 schools from across the state received the honor for demonstrating exemplary academic performance.
Meg Bigane is the principal of St. Giles School and noted that her school had already been awarded national Blue Ribbon School status before that program was shut down, one of 50 private schools across the country.
Nevertheless, the state award was just as special, she said, and elicited excitement from teachers, students, parents and the community.
“It has been an overwhelming amount of joy,” Bigane said, adding that the school located at 1034 Linden Ave. celebrated with a special announcement from Rev. Carl Morello, pastor of St. Giles, a dress in blue day, blue treats, a pep rally, games and, of course, a special mass. Morello is effectively the pastor of three Oak Park Catholic parishes – St. Giles, St. Edmund and Ascension. A fourth parish, St. Catherine-St. Lucy closed last summer though its parish school continues to operate independently.
Over at Ascension Catholic School, 601 Van Buren St., the feeling for principal Maureen Nielsen was mutual.
“We were elated,” Nielsen said. “It’s a feeling of pride, but a little more than that – a job well done. Our teachers and students work so hard and they were being recognized for the work they’ve done.
“Continuous improvement is an important thing. We’re proud of it, but we’re never done.”
Nielsen said schools with test scores in the top 15% in the nation were invited to apply for the national Blue Ribbon Schools distinction. All private schools, including Ascension and St. Giles, applied through the Council for American Private Education (CAPE).
For both Nielsen and Bigane, the process was a long one, starting in fall 2024 and concluding the following spring with a lengthy application. Nielsen said Ascension put together a committee of stakeholders, including teachers, the school board president, alumni and parents, which analyzed why the school was having strong success in test scores.
The award is validation of the hard work by not only teachers and administrators, but the children themselves, she said.
“We’re talking about little kids, and they are excited,” Nielsen said. “They have pride in their own work. It gives them purpose going forward.”
Of course, strong teachers equate to strong schools, Nielsen and Bigane agreed.
Bigane said there is a difference in salaries between public and private schools, but “we try to make up for some of that with school culture. We have longstanding, dedicated teachers.”
Nielsen added that her teachers enter the profession as a vocation, not only a job.
“We are data-focused and goal-oriented,” she said. “We focus on progress, not perfection … test scores, teacher observations, to make sure we know where the kids are, and goals so we know where we want them to go.
“When you pull those together with good teachers, that’s when students are successful.”
Morello said the blend of top-flight education and faith-based formation contributes to the success of both schools, and also St. Catherine-St. Lucy School.
But the awards also underscore the importance of education in the Oak Park community. Recently, several schools in both Oak Park School District 97 and River Forest School District 90 were named Exemplary according to the 2025 Illinois Report Card that was issued in October. Other schools in those districts, along with Oak Park and River Forest High School, got close.
“It is a highly educated community and it’s affluent and their expectations are high,” Morello said. “I would say the idea of strong schools and either religious education or formation are high value for most of our families.”
Bigane said Oak Park is the kind of place where families want to move because the schools are strong, both public and private.
“I think that it’s a small area that has a concentration of very strong schools, which leads to a lot of strong competition,” she said. “I think people are attracted to the smaller class sizes, which we have. People are attracted to great teachers, which we have.
“We have a lot of kids from Chicago, Galewood and Austin, and from Elmwood Park and Cicero, a diverse population that mirrors what the world looks like.”
