Grand Traverse Area Catholic Schools
The Grand Traverse Area Catholic Schools ( GTACS ) are schools of the Roman Catholic Church in the administrative seat of Grand Traverse County , Traverse City , and is part of the Gaylord Diocese . The school is divided into four parts: the Kindergarten and the Elementary School Holy Angels , the Elementary School Immaculate Conception , the Middle School St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and the High School Saint Francis .
history
In 1877, friar George Ziegler asked the Dominican Order to send nuns to a school for the youth of the parish of Saint Francis of Traverse City. Then six nuns made their way from New York City to Traverse City, where they opened a school on October 29, 1877; At this point they were visiting six students, but the number grew steadily and only two months later they had reached fifty students.
The first building to be built was the Holy Angels Academy , which was opened in September 1883 by the Bishop of Grand Rapids , Henry Richter. The building was used as a school until 1893 and as a convent until 1971, after which it was torn down and the nuns moved to a neighboring house. In 1902, a new parish was set up in Traverse City, named after the dogma of the Immaculate Immaculate Conception , and a school for initially 80 students was integrated into the church building, which opened on February 22, 1906. This opened with the new school year on September 1st of the same year and had four classrooms, of which only three were used.
Today's Holy Angels Elementary School moved into its current building as St. Francis Elementary School in January 1955, which consisted of 14 classrooms and a room for free periods. A sports hall, which opened on November 26, 1954, and a cafeteria were attached to the school.
On May 29, 1997, the construction of a new school building on the outskirts of Traverse City for St. Elizabeth Ann Seton began, and school operations began on September 1, 1998. The building consists of eleven classrooms, two laboratories, a music and art room each and a cafeteria integrated into an auditorium. A total of 325 students can attend the school. At the same time it was also decided to rename the Saint Francis Elementary School to the Holy Angels in memory of its origins. Nowadays, only the high school is called Saint Francis.
