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Central Catholic St. Nicholas School and Academy is an Archdiocesan Consolidate School. The sponsoring parishes included St. Alphonsus, St. Nicholas, St. Bridget's and St. Theresa of Avila. Consolidation allows parishes to share in school while retaining individual parish identity.
Dramatic population shifts in the 1960's lowered enrollment in north side Catholic schools. To continue a Catholic education tradition, school consolidation of St. Bridget's, St. Theresa's and St. Alphonsus was necessary. Consolidation took place in 1970 under the guidance of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, parish leaders, and Monsignor John Schocklee. The same year St. Bridget of Erin School on 1106 N. Jefferson became Central Catholic Community School, grades 1-6. Providence Jr. High on 2331 Mullanphy became Central Community School, grades 7-8. The financial burden of maintaining two buildings on Jefferson (built in 1957) proved to be a rewarding test. That following year a kindergarten was added to Central Catholic Community School.
St. Nicholas, the most recent addition to the consolidation, was built in 1876 under the pastorship of Rev. Casper Doebbener. The school opened in 1877, it was located at 1915 Lucas Avenue. Declining enrollment caused the school to close in 1917. The school was sold to Langan Brothers Furniture Company. In 1923 the Jesuit Scholastics had renewed interest in educating the young people who lived in the area. St. Nicholas has provided quality education for over 100 years. It's most recent addition was a preschool program in 1987.
1987 marked the announcement of the Archdiocesan FOCUS plan. The North Deanery Schools became a part of the Federation of Catholic Urban Schools. As a result of the FOCUS plan, two important schools in the black community were consolidated, St. Nicholas and Central Community School. Consolidated under the name Central Catholic St. Nicholas School, the school was then able to provide quality instruction and care for infants (6 weeks) through eighth grade.
St. Bridget's Church was closed the summer of 2004 and merged with St. Theresa's Church. St. Bridget's rectory became the responsibility of the Central catholic St. Nicholas School. The rectory was renovated to add space for the kindergarten and first grade classes, which were previously housed at our St. Nicholas School facility. Additional space was created for a library, computer lab, office space, and meeting room. The newly merged parish, Sts. Theresa and Bridget, continued the rich tradition of sponsoring the school community. This reduced the number of parishes sponsoring the school from four to three.
The Nativity Program was embedded within the middle grades the fall of 2006. This program utilizes best practices in education that inspire significant achievement levels within middle grade youth. The college preparatory curriculum enables students to meet the demands of rigorous high school requirements to further succeed in collegiate environments. This facilitated the renaming of the middle school. Thus, the middle school was officially named Central Catholic Academy.
Today Central Catholic Academy continues its tradition of providing quality Catholic education for families in our community. We are striving to grow and change as the needs of the times dictate, and we hope to consistently be of service to our parents in their role as primary educator of their children.
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