John Paul the Great High School

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History

History of Catholic Education in Dubois County

1837 St. Joseph parish established by Bishop Simon Brute
1842 St. Mother Theodore Guerin sends her Sisters of Providence to establish her first school at St. Joseph parish. This was publicly funded (& inexpensive at the time given the high proportion of religious vocations involved in the school). All parishes then followed suit; all publicly funded.

1889 Jasper College Academy was founded for secondary education, incorporated in conjunction with St. Meinrad's College. The school was located at the current site of the Providence Home and Ruxer baseball field. In 1933, the school moved to Aurora, IL.
1870 Academy Immaculate Conception established for local girls. Name changed to Marian Heights 1973, coinciding with a different focus that had developed for the school, being a boarding school for an international base of students. Closed in 2000.

1951 St. Ferdinand High School was erected, in large for the convenience of their children who were driving to Huntingburg for secondary education.

St. Ferdinand High School became a public school in 1968-1969 during the re-organization of the Dubois County School Corporations. Around that time the ACLU brought multiple suits and successfully removed any religious identity from all of the schools in the area.

1944 Evansville diocese established
1948 Holy Family parish established by Bishop H. Grimmelsman, to be erected first as a parish school, and second as a place of worship

1951 First Mass at Holy Family celebrated initially sacraments celebrated in the“gym church”
1954 Precious Blood parish established by Bishop Grimmelsman, similarly with a school first focus

The only remaining Catholic schools we have in the area are Holy Family and Precious Blood schools, both of which became schools before there was even a place for worship. This is the priority required to be successful.

History of Our Effort

1999 Father Tony Ernst, who was Associate Pastor at St. Joseph's parish at the time, met with a parishioner and called a public meeting. By word of mouth, approximately 100 people gathered at the Knights of Columbus Hall to begin discussing the idea of a Catholic High School for the Jasper Deanery (St. Joseph, Jasper; Holy Family, Jasper; Precious Blood, Jasper; St. Mary's, Huntingburg; St. Mary's, Ireland; St. Ferdinand, Ferdinand; St. Raphael, Dubois; St. Peter Celestine, Celestine; and Sacred Heart, Schnellville). Out of those in attendence, a coordinating commitee began meeting monthly to explore and evaluate the idea.

2000 Two researchers from ISU (Drs. Boyd and Ulm) performed a demographic feasability study which clearly demonstrated an adequate population to support a school of 50-75 students per class for the foreseeable future. Also in 2000 we incorporated as a 501(c)3 organization. We met formally with Bishop Gerald Gettelfinger who gave his strong support for our efforts.

Over the next 3 years, subcommitees made great progress with regard to developing a school charter, mission statement, values and philosophy of education. A facilitees subcomitee evaluated costs, timelines and locations. In fact, that subcomitee identified a plot of land near Bretzville junction which we thought was ideal. Being unable to purchase property at the time, those land owners later sold the property to the South East Dubois School Corporation (Cedar Crest site).

2003 Around the year 2003, we realized that multiple capital campaigns were underway at St. Meinrad Archabbey, Monastery of the Immaculate Conception in Ferdinance, Holy Family parish and St. Joseph's parish. These capital campaigns totaled in the area of 70 million dollars. The commitee explored inexpensive approaches to beginning a new school. Ultimately, the volunteers ran out of man-hours necessary to move forward.

2007 The Regional Catholic School Corporation Board of Directors reconstituted at the stimulus of a Precious Blood parishioner who brought the concern to Fr. John Silva, newly appointed associate pastor at St. Joseph's.

2008 Bishop Gerald recognized John Paul the Great Catholic High School as a Catholic entity within the Diocese of Evansville, a school that is financially independent from local parishes and yet still faithful to the authority of our Bishop and his directives and the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church.

Elizabeth (Gramelspacher) Flatt was hired in August as the schools first principal to ensure that the curriculum would meet or exceed Indiana Department of Education standards.

The John Paul the Great Catholic High School Capital Campaign was launched publicly in November with the goal of meeting our financial startup needs through the first 3 full years of operation (May of 2012).

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