Holy Cross School (New Orleans)

Holy Cross School is a high school, middle school, and primary school serving grades pre-k -12 founded in 1849 by the Congregation of Holy Cross in New Orleans, Louisiana. The main founder of Holy Cross is Blessed Father Basil Moreau, who was beatified on September 15, 2007. Holy Cross High was originally named St. Isidore's College. Holy Cross School is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans.

Holy Cross High School
Holy Cross
Address
5500 Paris Ave

New Orleans
,
Louisiana
70122

United States
Coordinates30°0′50.17″N 90°4′32.39″W
Information
TypePrivate, All-Male
MottoCrux Spes Unica
The Cross Is Our Only Hope
Religious affiliation(s)Roman Catholic,
Holy Cross
Patron saint(s)Saint Joseph
Established1849
FounderFr. Basil Moreau, CSC
School districtArchdiocese of New Orleans
SuperintendentSister Kathleen Finnerty O.S.U.
PrincipalEric DesOrmeaux
HeadmasterSean Martin
ChaplainFather Johnathan Hymel
GradesK-12
Age range4-18
Enrollment995
LanguageEnglish
Hours in school day6.75
Campus size18 acres (73,000 m2)
Campus typemiddle and high school
Color(s)Navy Blue and Old Gold         
AthleticsLHSAA
MascotThunder the Tiger
Team nameTigers
RivalJesuit Blue Jays
Chalmette Owls
AccreditationSouthern Association of Colleges and Schools[1][2]
NewspaperThe Bulletin
Tuition$9,500 including fees
Revenue6,400,000
AffiliationRoman Catholic
Dean of MenEric Desormeaux(8-12)Ronnie Kornick(5-7)
Director of Student ActivitiesEric Ferry
Admissions DirectorWalter Guillot III
Athletic DirectorGuy LeCompte
I.T. DirectorJerry Arnone, PMP,MCSE
Chief Financial OfficerJohn Gerrets, CPA
WebsiteHoly Cross School

History

In 1849 the Brothers, Priests and Sisters of Holy Cross arrived in New Orleans after they had established the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, and took over an orphanage for the boys and girls who survived a plague. The orphanage, along with the first Ursuline School for Girls (the oldest Catholic School in America), was destroyed to make room for the 1923 Industrial Canal, which experienced levee failures that flooded large parts of New Orleans twice, with Hurricane Betsy in 1965 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Historic Holy Cross Campus in the Lower 9th Ward

In 1871, Holy Cross moved to its historic site, which then was a farm named St. Isidore's farm, on 4950 Dauphine Street, and built a renowned "collegiate-styled campus" and established in 1879 its current school, bordered by the high Mississippi River levee. The area has since become a Federal Historic District known as the "Holy Cross Historic District."

First chartered by the State of Louisiana in 1890, the name was changed to Holy Cross in 1895 when the present Administration Building was dedicated. A boarding program, which continued until 1973, attracted as many as 150 students annually from across the South as well as from Central and South America.

Prior to 2015 Holy Cross had grades 5-12. The archdiocese began requiring schools to fit one of three grade configurations (PK-7, 8-12, or PK-12) in order to continue affiliation, and Holy Cross needed to change its grade configuration.[3] The school administration decided for the school to become K-12.[4]

Holy Cross relocation

With Hurricane Katrina, the campus, like the majority of the city, was flooded by the Levee failures on the Industrial Canal and levee "over-topped" by storm surge along the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO) that destroyed St. Bernard Parish and Eastern New Orleans and Greater New Orleans in August 2005. The school has relocated to 5500 Paris Avenue, the campuses of the former St. Francis Cabrini Parish and Redeemer-Seton High School on Paris Avenue between Filmore and Prentiss Avenue in the Gentilly/7th Ward neighborhood of New Orleans. Demolition of the various structures which once stood has been completed. This is one of the many steps in the construction of the new location which is now Holy Cross High School. The state of the art high school, middle school, and administration building have been completed.

The Advisory Committee of the Laura Bush Foundation for America's Libraries informed Holy Cross School that it has been chosen to receive a $50,000 grant to purchase books for the school's library. She attended Holy Cross on Thursday, April 19, 2007 to present the 14 grantees in Mississippi and Louisiana, including Holy Cross, with the donation.

New campus
New Holy Cross campus on Paris Avenue, July 2010

Holy Cross School is now in the process of building a new campus on Paris Avenue in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans. Buildings that have been completed include the Middle and High School buildings, with the Administration building coming online in January 2010. The campus will be completely covered by wireless internet, with all security and maintenance maintained through computer automation.

Buildings now in construction include the school's enormous gymnasium, as well as the maintenance building. The gymnasium will house an indoor basketball court with stadium seating, a full-size indoor track, collegiate level locker rooms, weight rooms, several practice rooms for karate and wrestling, along with a snack area and band rehearsal floor. The maintenance building houses the chillers for the entire school's air conditioning system, consisting of four 400ton chillers. All systems are fully automated with remote control access by internet.

Additionally, the school hopes to complete a chapel, pool building, along with a separate performing arts center and cafeteria. In the future to school hopes to cap its size at 1000-1200 enrollees in a few years.

Technology

Holy Cross School has risen since its near destruction to have one of the most sophisticated campuses, with technology heavily implemented into its school curriculum. Currently, all students are issued laptops individually to use at school and at home. This necessitates having a completely wireless campus covering over 18 acres (73,000 m2). Using cutting edge Dell and Cisco servers, the school maintains full automation of all maintenance systems on campus, with remote access control. The school partners with many providers to provide email, wireless printing, multimedia resources, and sophisticated equipment to all its faculty, students, and staff. Additionally, the new campus features Smart boards in all classrooms with all systems networked throughout the buildings.

Maintenance wise, all air handlers, thermostats, lighting, and security features are remotely monitored and controlled with full automation by computers.

This high-level ability has been built quickly up with the heavy support of Headmaster Charles DiGange and Jerry Arnone, the school's IT Director.

Athletics

Holy Cross School fields teams and competitors in many sports. The school currently offers soccer, karate, football, basketball, tennis, baseball, bowling, golf, swimming, wrestling, power lifting, track and field, and cross country. Holy Cross currently competes in Class 4A of the Louisiana High School Athletic Association.

Holy Cross football vs. Jesuit football is one of the oldest continuous high school rivalry in Louisiana. The first game was played in 1922 (which Jesuit won 52-0). The two teams have played every year since, including twice in 1963 (once in regular season and again for the state crown, which Holy Cross won).

The Tigers have also had a long rivalry with Chalmette High School, owing to Holy Cross' former location in the Lower 9th Ward and its large student population from neighboring St. Bernard Parish. Chalmette and Holy Cross were rivals in the New Orleans Catholic League from 1968 through 1988.

Holy Cross was the first school in the New Orleans area to field a football team post-Katrina in late September of the 2005 football season.

The Tigers were the 1939 state basketball champions. They again made the championship game in 1974 but lost to Brother Martin.

Holy Cross has won the Louisiana state championship in this sport 25 times. They have also had a total of 207 individual state champions and 192 state runner-up finishes. Twenty-two of those titles were won during the 24-year period of 1945 to 1968; 1951 and 1966 were the only years in this period when the state championship was not won by the Tigers. The latest championship was won in 2009.

Primary school

In March 2014, Holy Cross School announced that they will become a Pre-K through 12 school. Holy Cross is the only all boys Catholic school in the Greater New Orleans area to offer a comprehensive Pre-K through 12th grade education. Holy Cross Primary School opened to all grades (Pre-K through 4) in the fall of 2015.

Notable alumni

Resources

Notes and references
  1. "Institution Summary". AdvancED. Retrieved 2015-06-02.
  2. "Institution Summary". AdvancED. Retrieved 2015-06-02.
  3. Tan, Sarah (2014-01-24). "37 Catholic schools must add or drop grades, or lose their Catholic identity". The Times Picayune. Retrieved 2020-05-26.
  4. "Holy Cross will open primary school for boys in New Orleans". The Times Picayune. 2014-03-17. Archived from the original on 2016-09-26. Retrieved 2020-05-26.
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