Blessed Sacrament Catholic School sits on a broad seven-and-a-half-acre property along South First Avenue in Morton, Illinois, where it has shared grounds with its parish church since the late 1950s. The parish school serves roughly 175 students from preschool through eighth grade and serves as the educational arm of Blessed Sacrament Parish, one of the younger Catholic communities in the Diocese of Peoria. Both families who have worshipped at the parish for generations and families new to the area send their children here for daily religion classes, weekly Mass, and a Catholic liberal-arts curriculum that places the school in the top fifteen percent nationally on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills.
Mass on South First Avenue
Mass at Blessed Sacrament is offered every day of the week and is open to anyone who wishes to attend. The Sunday Mass is celebrated at 9:30 a.m. From Monday through Thursday, daily Mass is held at 8:00 a.m., and on Friday mornings the parish gathers for a 9:00 a.m. School Mass with the entire student body. Each of these Masses is livestreamed on the parish's YouTube channel for those at home or in the hospital.
The parish takes its Catholic identity seriously. Students gather for a Weekly All School Mass, observe First Friday Adoration, and prepare for the sacraments through the religion curriculum. Junior high students earn service hours, the seventh and eighth grades volunteer at a soup kitchen, and fifth graders partner with seniors in the wider community through a pen-pal and visitation program. The school community is small enough that middle-schoolers know every teacher by name and large enough to fill the pews when the eighth grade leads the liturgy.
A Catholic Identity Built Around Jesus Christ
Blessed Sacrament School describes itself in the words of its mission statement as "committed to providing our students a positive learning environment which fosters their growth into responsible and productive global citizens." It develops students "intellectually, socially, culturally, and physically, centering upon the teaching of Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church."
The school's philosophy is broader still. Blessed Sacrament, the faculty writes, "affirms that we are a uniquely religious community within an educational community." Students, parents, the pastor, teachers, the administrator, the staff, and the Commission on Education come together to make Christ present to one another, the parish, the wider community, and the world. Faculty and students believe "by our learning, our faith is strengthened and by our faithfulness, our learning is enhanced." The motto that the parish school lives out is the example of Christ: to serve, not to be served.
Faith formation at the school is not a once-a-week class. Religion is taught daily. Students celebrate the sacraments as a school community, and the parish reaches out beyond its walls through pen-pal exchanges, soup kitchen volunteering, and other service projects that grow with the student.
Academics Ranked in the Top Fifteen Percent
Blessed Sacrament School ranks in the upper fifteen percent nationally on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, a result the school points to with pride. Curriculum highlights include a strong math and Algebra program for the middle school, the Glynn STREAM lab for junior high students, daily religion classes, weekly All School Mass, First Friday Adoration, a Spanish program for every grade, a music and band program, and a computer lab. SMART boards and iPads support classroom instruction, and Google Classroom is used across grades for assignments and announcements.
Twelve classroom teachers anchor the program, with special teachers in technology, music, Spanish, the library, and resource support, plus six teacher aides. The Resource Teacher and Resource Aide work with students who need extra help, and band begins in fifth grade under the direction of a dedicated band teacher. The middle school offers Algebra preparation, and junior high students are expected to complete service hours each year.
A Montessori Preschool on the Parish Campus
In the fall of 2025, Blessed Sacrament School introduced a Montessori Preschool for three- and four-year-olds, becoming one of the early adopters of the Montessori method in the local Catholic school landscape. The program is led by a certified Montessori teacher and is built around the principle that the early learner is best served by guided freedom and meaningful, self-chosen work.
The preschool day centers on the spiritual life of the child, practical life experiences, and exploration of language arts, math, geography, and science through the senses. Children choose work at their own level of interest and ability, an engagement the school says strengthens motivation, supports attention, and encourages responsibility. A Pre-K classroom sits alongside the Montessori preschool to bridge students into the kindergarten year.
The preschool shares the broader school calendar so families with multiple children can plan around a single rhythm. Preschool students participate in the school's before- and after-care program and walk the same hallways as the upper-grade students on the way to Mass.
Life of the Tars: Athletics, Activities, and the Saint Behind the Name
School teams at Blessed Sacrament are known as the Tars. The name comes from Saint Tarcisius, an early Christian Roman boy martyred for carrying the Eucharist to prisoners in the catacombs. Tradition holds that when a group of schoolmates demanded he stop and join their games, he refused, prayed for strength, and was beaten to death rather than surrender the Blessed Sacrament. The parish school adopted him as its patron of athletics and good sportsmanship, and students are reminded by his example "that we too are followers of Jesus Christ."
The BSS Tars compete in cross country, baseball, volleyball, basketball, track, golf, and cheerleading. Cross country, basketball, and track are open to boys and girls in grades five through eight, baseball to boys in grades six through eight, volleyball and cheerleading to girls in grades five through eight, and wrestling is offered through a co-op with St. Philomena School. Seventh- and eighth-grade teams compete in the IESA State Series. BSS Athletics provides schedules and team information.
Beyond athletics, students take part in band starting in fifth grade, with performances at school programs, the Peoria Court House, and All School Masses; in Student Council, with elections for grades five through eight meeting on the second Wednesday of each month; in Scholastic Bowl for seventh and eighth graders; in Declamation contests held each spring at Holy Family; and in a school Spelling Bee that sends winners on to local competition. Altar Servers, drawn from fifth graders and older, assist at weekend Masses, daily Mass, funerals, and weddings at the parish, with BSS students taking turns serving daily Mass throughout the school year. Each January the school celebrates Catholic Schools Week, the school year closes with Track and Field Day and a School in the Park outing at Idlewood Park, and the spring musical is performed for the broader community.
Sixty-Plus Years of Parish Life in Morton
The story of Blessed Sacrament begins in the fall of 1953, when roughly forty Catholic families from Morton and the surrounding countryside visited Bishop Cousins to ask for help establishing a Catholic Mission in their town. Bishop Cousins sent Father Martin Fallon, and the new Mission celebrated two Sunday Masses each week in the Morton Civic Building on Jefferson Street. Soon the old township hall was turned into a permanent chapel that seated sixty, and the Altar and Rosary and Holy Name Societies took root.
Father George Howard followed in the summer of 1955 and began a building fund and the search for property. In June of 1956, Father Eugene Gould became the first resident priest, the Mission purchased the present seven-and-a-half acres, and the parish took its current name: Blessed Sacrament Church. Ground was broken for the school on March 17, 1957. The completed building combined chapel, classrooms, and a parish hall, and when the parish chapel was moved out in 1958, six classrooms were ready for students. That September, the School Sisters of Notre Dame arrived from Mequon, Wisconsin, and Blessed Sacrament School opened with 141 students in grades one through eight. The new church was dedicated by Bishop Franz on June 7, 1964.
The parish grew under Father George Wuellner, who guided the community through the changes of the Second Vatican Council, and under Father Eugene L. Finnell, whose twenty-eight-year pastorate saw the parish double in size, the debt from the 1960s construction finally retired, a new rectory completed in 1999, and Tom Moran ordained as the parish's first permanent deacon in 1992. Father Mark A. DeSutter arrived in 2000 after years in campus ministry at the University of Illinois and Western Illinois University. Under his leadership the parish undertook a "Vision For Our Future" strategic plan, hired its first youth minister and adult education director, and completed a $4.4 million, three-phase renovation of the school, parish center, and church. The newly renovated church was rededicated on December 6, 2009, marking the parish's fiftieth anniversary.
Father Mark was succeeded in June 2014 by Monsignor Gerald Ward, the parish's fifth pastor, with Father Kyle Lucas joining as parochial vicar. Deacons Rick Miller, Dave Steeples, and Kevin Zeeb were ordained in 2007, and Michael Harris joined the diaconate in 2017. In 2017 construction began on the new gym, school offices, cafeteria, and music room that now anchor the school day. The new school facilities on the parish campus were completed in 2019.
Before- and After-Care, Lunch, and a Full School Day
The school day at Blessed Sacrament runs from 8:15 a.m. to 3:05 p.m. The before-care program opens at 7:00 a.m. and gathers students in the commons or gym until first-through-eighth graders are released to the gym for morning announcements and the Rosary, while preschool and kindergarten students meet their teachers. After care runs from 3:05 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. with homework time, quiet reading, free play, and outdoor play (or the gym on bad-weather days). The morning program is included in the regular school fees, and the after-school program is offered at an hourly rate with a $20 non-refundable family registration fee.
Lunch is prepared fresh on site daily under the direction of Cafeteria Manager Amanda Cannon. Hot lunch is $3.90 and includes the day's entrée or a daily option of yogurt, a cheese stick, a muffin, fruit, a vegetable, and milk. Students in grades five through eight may choose a salad plate on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Extra milk is sixty cents, and an extra entrée for grades six through eight is $1.25. Families manage their accounts electronically, and the school provides menus for the entire school year along with allergy awareness, modified-meal request forms, free and reduced-price applications, and carbohydrate counts.
Volunteers are an important part of the school day. Parents, grandparents, and retired community members help in classrooms and on field trips. All regular volunteers in Catholic schools are required to complete a background check and fingerprinting through the Parent Teacher Organization.
Tuition, Financial Aid, and Prospective Families
Blessed Sacrament School publishes tuition for both the K-8 program and the preschool each year, along with a parent-student handbook, dress code, and grading scale. The school partners with FACTS Grant and Aid to process financial assistance applications, and additional support is available through the Diocese of Peoria's Spalding Scholarships and the Empower Illinois tax credit scholarship program. Tuition assistance is also built into the school's own fundraising.
Families interested in visiting can call the school office at (309) 263-8442 or email the school secretary. Mass is livestreamed on Facebook and the parish's YouTube channel. Most communication with current families flows through RenWeb ParentsWeb, the school management system used for grades, class rosters, lunch balances, the library, email lists, and lunch-room duty sign-ups.
The parish school continues to grow on the seven-and-a-half acres first purchased in the 1950s, now home to a preschool through eighth grade school of about 175 students, a church rededicated at its fiftieth anniversary, a parish center, and the gym, cafeteria, and music room completed in 2019. For Catholic families in Morton, Blessed Sacrament remains a place to learn, to worship, and to call home.