History
St. Andrew History
St. Andrew Lutheran School was started back in 1883 as a branch school of First Trinity Lutheran here in Chicago. The rapid growth of the school and new immigration led First Trinity to start St. Andrew as a daughter congregation in 1888. St. Andrew was a member of the LC-MS until 1973 when for doctrinal reasons we left the Missouri Synod. After a brief period as an independent congregation, St. Andrew joined the WELS. We are one of four WELS congregations within the city limits of Chicago. Our current membership is 313 communicants and about 394 souls.
The current school building dates back to 1929. We have eleven large rooms, a gymnasium with a stage, and a large Fellowship Hall with complete kitchen. Seven of the rooms are currently used for classes. (Three of these seven have been converted into our Learning Center to accommodate an expanded preschool for three- and four-year-olds.) The other rooms are used for: the church/school office, school media center, and resource room/faculty lounge, and Pastor’s office and conference room.
St. Andrew Today
St. Andrew Lutheran School is a traditional elementary school – kindergarten through 8th grade. The school has over a 125 year history. The motto at St. Andrew is To Know, To Grow, and To Show. We are here to assist parents in guiding children to know Jesus as their Savior, grow in faith, and show him to others.
The uniqueness of St. Andrew lies in its small size. The school population numbers 95. We have 6 full time certified teachers. Classroom sizes range from 10-15 students.
St. Andrew is a private school with a family atmosphere. It exists to offer a quality Christ-centered education with a curriculum that is challenging, and up-to-date.
The state recognized school has a safe and clean environment with a wide variety of opportunities: physical education, health, music, art, extra-curricular activities, and a newly improved media center.
Traditional academic curricula at St. Andrew includes: religion, mathematics, reading, science, social studies, language arts, music, fine arts, and health.
In addition, there are special academic programs such as math meets, spelling contests, public speaking competitions, science fairs, social studies fairs, art fairs, and academic bowls.
Among the extracurricular activities are: bible based worship services, weekly bible study, bible information classes for those wanting to find out more about the Lutheran faith, a children’s program called Lutheran Pioneers, and Sunday school for pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. In addition, there are field trips which are used to supplement and enhance study.
Sports at St. Andrew include softball (fall), soccer (fall), volleyball (fall), basketball (winter), and track & field (spring).
The school day begins at 8 AM and concludes at 3 PM. Before and aftercare programs are available starting at 7 AM with the aftercare program going until 6 PM.