Star of the Sea school, which has served generations of San Franciscans in the Richmond District, abruptly announced Wednesday that it is closing its doors in June amid declining enrollment, just weeks after parents asked the Archdiocese of San Francisco to investigate the pastor of the Catholic grammar school.

The Archdiocese said in a statement Wednesday that the grammar school is being “suspended” so that it could further develop a new teaching program that was supposed to start in the fall. The school’s fully enrolled preschool classes will continue as normal, the archdiocese said. Its statement did not acknowledge the parents’ complaint about the school pastor, the Rev. Joseph Illo.

“This has been a difficult and uncertain period for many school parents, some of whom have strongly expressed their concerns and reluctance to (the new teaching program),” Illo wrote in a letter to parents. “There has also been a good deal of positive interest in moving forward with this new model.”

Illo has been the subject of heavy criticism by parents at the school since the diocese appointed him to the parish in August 2014. In 2015, he was criticized for banning girls from serving at the altar at Mass. That same year, he also denied non-Catholic students from receiving blessings during Communion, and apologized for providing pamphlets to children before confession that included questions about masturbation, sodomy, abortion and vasectomies.

Most recently, parents sent a three-page, unsigned complaint to the diocese, alleging that Illo “attempted to instigate a fight” at a March 7 “State of the School” meeting after a mother accused him of being “responsible for the decimation of the school.”

The letter says Illo stood up from his seat, walked toward the woman’s husband and “aggressively stared at him in a manner that can only be described as attempting to challenge the husband to a fight.” He allegedly went on to demand the woman’s husband to “order” his wife to apologize for any disparaging remarks she made about him.

“Father Illo erupted at her. It was very strange,” said Jim Tolley, the father of a 12-year-old student who said he walked out of the meeting, along with other parents, after the incident. “I was not the first one out of the door.”

Tolley said his daughter attended Star of the Sea since kindergarten, but he pulled her out of the school — and she started attending a new school on Monday.

He described the confrontation by Illo as “sickening.”

“How does one man kill a school?” Tolley said. “It’s inexplicable.”

Other parents, too, have pulled out of the school, or plan to, after the March 7 meeting in which parents sought answers about the future of the school and were frustrated by Illo’s responses.

Many parents, Tolley said, have been attending tours of other schools in small groups.

Illo told The Chronicle in a statement Wednesday night that he was advised by his supervisor not to comment on allegations surrounding the March 7 meeting.

But in his letter to parents on Wednesday, Illo wrote he’s “worked hard to build bridges between the parish and the school” in addition to developing the new curriculum.

He wrote that the Department of Catholic Schools will coordinate with the Archdiocese of San Francisco to find alternative Catholic schooling for impacted students, as well as “assuring that our beloved faculty can secure teaching positions within our school system if they so desire.”

The school employs 11 full-time faculty, according to its web site, and serves about 168 students, according to the diocese.

Mike Brown, a spokesman for the Archdiocese, said the complaint about Illo was anonymous. He said the letter was given to officials with the Department of Catholic Schools, which is reviewing the complaint.

Lauren Hernandez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: lauren.hernandez@

sfchronicle.com Twitter: @LaurenPorFavor