St. Mary's offers electives in Art, Music, Social Studies, Mathematics, Science, and English. St. Mary's curriculum offers honors and advanced placement level courses in Math, Science, World Language, and English. Through its virtual high school program offered through Catholic Virtual, St. Mary's offers an additional 200 courses.[3]
History
Founding
Saint Mary High School was established in 1899[4][5]
2018 closure attempt
In March 2018, following a 43% enrollment drop over the course of 19 years from 1999 to 2018, Father Frank Lawlor announced that the parish high school would close at the conclusion of the 2017–18 school year. The decision to close the school was met with an abundance of emotions in a March 12th meeting to discuss the matter. Lawlor said that the decision to close the school was not monetary, and merely an issue of declining student enrollment. Troy Collins, baseball coach of thirteen years for the High School and St. Mary's alumni, asserted that he was told the decision was because of monetary issues.[6]
In the hours following the meeting, parents, alums, and community members began to organize a grassroots attempt at saving the school. Bob Wilcox, Class of 1988, was a key figure in the organization's efforts: Creating a Facebook group titled "Save Saint Mary's High School" which would eventually grow to over 250 members. [7] This group organized a successful meeting of 200 members less than 24 hours after the first meeting and created plans to hold a prayer vigil for the school alongside a lawn sign campaign. School board Richard Labrie also announced that he was granted a private audience with the Bishop, in which he hoped to voice his support for Saint Mary's High School.[8]
Following the widespread calls for Saint Mary's to stay open, the bishop agreed to give the school another year, with the stipulation that they enroll Freshman classes of more than 20 students. In the 2018–19 school year, however, St. Mary's failed to enroll 20 freshmen, only enrolling 13. Despite this; the bishop allowed the school to remain open.
In January 2019, following a renewed drive behind Saint Mary's High School due in part to new administrators such as principal Matthew Collins and superintendent Daniel Baillargeon, the bishop announced that the school would remain open for the foreseeable future.[9]
Diocesan takeover
In the leadup to the 2019–2020 school year, St. Mary's High School transitioned from a parochial (run by the local parish) to a diocesan (run by the Larger Catholic Diocese of Springfield) school.[10]
The Archdiocese of St. Louis is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church that covers the City of St. Louis and the Missouri counties of Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln, Perry, Saint Charles, Saint Francois, Ste. Genevieve, St. Louis, Warren, and Washington. It is the metropolitan see of the ecclesiastical province containing three suffragan sees: Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, the Diocese of Jefferson City, and the Diocese of Kansas City-Saint Joseph.
The Archdiocese of Chicago is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction, an archdiocese of the Catholic Church located in Northeastern Illinois, in the United States. It was established as a diocese in 1843 and elevated to an archdiocese in 1880. It serves the more than 2.2 million Catholics in Cook and Lake counties in the state of Illinois, an area of 1,411 square miles (3,650 km2). The archdiocese is divided into six vicariates and 31 deaneries.
The Diocese of Madison is a Latin Church diocese in the southwestern part of Wisconsin in the United States. The diocese has approximately 167,000 Catholics in 102 parishes with 98 priests in active ministry.
The Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in Western Massachusetts in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Boston.
The Archdiocese of Newark is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction, or archdiocese, of the Catholic Church in northeastern New Jersey in the United States.
Holyoke Catholic High School was a private, Roman Catholic high school in Holyoke, Massachusetts, United States. It was located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts.
Thomas Jerome Welsh was an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania (1970-1974), as bishop of the Diocese of Arlington in Virginia (1974–1983) and as bishop of the Diocese of Allentown in Pennsylvania (1983–1997).
Saint Raphael Academy is a Roman Catholic, coeducational, college preparatory school in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, USA. It was founded in the tradition of Saint John Baptist de Lasalle and rooted in the Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence.
Timothy Anthony McDonnell is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. McDonnell served as bishop of the Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts from 2004 to 2014 and as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New York from 2001 to 2004.
Bishop Keough Regional High School was a private, Roman Catholic, all-girls high school in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. It was located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence.
Bishop Stang High School is a private Catholic high school located in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts, in the New England region of the United States. It was the first diocesan secondary school in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fall River, which includes the South Coast Massachusetts, including Cape Cod and the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. The school is named after William Stang, the first bishop of the Diocese of Fall River, and has been coeducational since its founding.
John Baptist Franz was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Dodge City in Kansas (1951–1959) and bishop of the Diocese of Peoria in Illinois (1959–1971).
Mitchell Thomas Rozanski is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who has been serving as the archbishop of the Archdiocese of St. Louis in Missouri since 2020. He previously served as bishop of the Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts from 2014 to 2020 and as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore in Maryland from 2004 to 2014.
Joseph Schrembs was a German-born prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Grand Rapids in Michigan for five months in 1911, as bishop of the Diocese of Toledo in Ohio from 1911 to 1921, and as bishop of the Diocese of Cleveland in Ohio from 1921 to 1945.
Timothy Lawrence Doherty is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He was a priest of the Diocese of Rockford in Illinois until he was appointed bishop of the Diocese of Lafayette in Indiana by Pope Benedict XVI on May 12, 2010. On July 15, 2010, Doherty was consecrated, becoming the sixth bishop of the diocese.
Carl Alan Kemme is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. Since 2014, he has been serving as bishop of the Diocese of Wichita in Kansas.
Saint James High School was a Roman Catholic high school located in Carneys Point Township, in Salem County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, that operated under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Camden. It closed at the end of the 1999-2000 school year. Colors: Green & Gold; Mascot: Spartans
William Draper Byrne is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He has been serving as the bishop of the Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts since 2020.
Earl Kenneth Fernandes is a Roman Catholic prelate who has served as bishop of the Diocese of Columbus in Ohio since 2022.
Saint Leo Oratory is a historic Catholic church and active oratory operated by the Institute of Christ the King in the Diocese of Columbus, located in the Merion Village neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. The historic parish was founded in 1903, the current Romanesque Revival church building was finished in 1917, the parish was suppressed in 1999, and the current ICKSP oratory was founded in 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
