Charleston Catholic High School

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Charleston Catholic High School (CCHS) is located in downtown Charleston, West Virginia. CCHS is a Catholic, coeducational high schoolfounded in 1923. Sacred Heart Church, founded in 1866, established a parochial school as early as 1869. The parish conducted primary grades irregularly in the 19th century. In 1903, the Sisters of St. Francis of Penance and Christian Charity, of Stella Niagara, N.Y., assumed administration of the school. In 1923, Sacred Heart added high school grades in the former Chilton house in downtown Charleston and named the institution Sacred Heart High School. In 1940, John J. Swint, the bishop of the Diocese of Wheeling, created Charleston Catholic High School. Area Catholics contributed to the construction of a two-story building, including science laboratories and a gymnasium, completed in 1941. Post-war growth of Charleston led to the expansion of the school and the addition of a third floor in the 1950s. Enrollment peaked in the late 1960s and then began a slow decline in the mid-1980s. In 1986, at its financial and academic nadir, the Rev. P. Edward Sadie, a local priest, hired Debra K. Sullivan as the principal. New administration placed CCHS on firm footing. In 2006, CCHS enrolls students predominantly Catholic students and other Christian and non-Christian backgrounds and from a wide range of ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic backgrounds. It enrolls nearly 500 students in grades 6 through 12, including almost 250 in grades 9 through 12. Students are required to conform to a uniform policy. CCHS boasts a rigorous college preparatory program for all students with an extensive offering of athletic and extracurricular programs. Its athletic teams compete with public and parochial schools in the WVSSAC Division A. Typically, 100 percent of graduating classes enroll in four-year colleges and universities throughout the United States.