Peoria Notre Dame High School

For schools of the same name, see Notre Dame High School.

Peoria Notre Dame High School
File:PND.gif
Address
5105 North Sheridan Road Peoria , Illinois USA
Information
Type	Parochial Catholic high school
Established	1988 (1863 roots)
School district	Roman Catholic Diocese of Peoria
President	Monsignor William A. Watson
Principal	Charlie Roy
Grades	9-12
Enrollment	813
Color(s)	Blue and white with green trim
Mascot	Irish, Clover, Leprechaun
Website	http://www.peorianotredame.com/

Peoria Notre Dame High School is a parochial (Catholic) college preparatory high school academy in Peoria, Illinois. It is the largest Catholic high school in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Peoria. As of the 2006–2007 school year, it had approximately 813 students. The team name is the "Irish", like the University of Notre Dame, but the high school uses the cloverleaf as its team symbol. The school is in the process of switching to an academy system with a trustee committee, oversight board, pastor's board, president, and principal, having recently appointed Monsignor William A. Watson as president and Mr. Charlie Roy as principal effective July 1, 2007.

Peoria Notre Dame has a reputation for the quality of its curricular and academic standards in the Peoria area; approximately 98% of the school's graduates go on to four year colleges.

History

The school traces its roots back to 1863, when Father Abram Ryan and seven Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet founded a parochial school in Peoria. Notre Dame was created at the beginning of the 1988–1989 school year by the consolidation of the two Peoria area Catholic high schools, Spalding Institute/Academy of Our Lady (itself from the 1970s consolidation of two schools with histories back to around 1900) and Bergan High School (formed in the 1960s). The Spalding Institute/Academy of Our Lady facility was closed while the Bergan facility was expanded, and both schools were consolidated together as Notre Dame at the site of the Bergan facility.

In 2006, the school's Education Commission, in conjunction with the Peoria Area Pastors' Board and the Diocesan Office of Catholic Schools, hired The Reid Group of Bellevue, Washington, to develop and conduct a campus location study. In the Friday, June 20, 2008 edition of the weekly Catholic Post, the newspaper of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Peoria, it was announced that the Reid Group had advised the Commission to build a new school, an athletic facility/pool, and new sports fields on a campus north of the present Peoria Academy near the intersection of Willow Knolls Road and Allen Road in outlying Peoria. The $57 million needed would be funded largely through a capital campaign and private donations; the diocese, and perhaps parishes in the Tri-County area (Peoria, Tazewell, and Woodford counties), will likely assist in some capacity. Bonds may be sought, and delays and/or staging of the project may be resorted to if funding during the present economic conditions becomes a difficulty. However, many in the Peoria area knew of, and quite a few supported, a new plan of some kind.

Stated mission

According to the school , the stated mission of Notre Dame is to nurture, under the direction of the Bishop of the Diocese, the spiritual, emotional, intellectual, and physical development of its students, by teaching the Catholic faith, leading the students to be disciples of Jesus Christ, and by teaching the arts and sciences in a climate of academic inquiry.

Notable alumni

• Wayne A. Downing (1940–2007) – General, U.S. Army, former commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, 1993-1996.
• Joseph E. Girardi – Current manager of the New York Yankees and former Major League Baseball catcher.
• Brian Randle – former basketball player, University of Illinois, 2003-2007.
• Fulton J. Sheen (1895–1979) – Catholic Archbishop, former host of The Catholic Hour on radio and the television program Life is Worth Living.

See also

• Quincy Notre Dame High School — so named since 1928; also in Illinois

External links

• Peoria Notre Dame High School - official site