St. Rose of Lima Catholic School

Monroeville, Allen County; school opened 1912 in the building of 1911 (mission parish of 1868; moved to its present campus in 2013)

The parish: Monroeville is a town in Madison Township in eastern Allen County, and this is the easternmost Catholic school in the diocese. The school's own history begins in 1868, when twenty faith filled families banded together and built a fifty by fifty-two foot frame church, a mission parish in southeastern Allen County bordering the Great Black Swamp. A resident pastor, Father J. Grogan, was assigned sixteen years later. The frame church burned in 1887, and under Father B. Hartman construction began in 1888 on the Gothic style brick church, at a cost of $95,000, dedicated in 1889 by Bishop Dwenger. The parish takes its name from St. Rose of Lima, the first American saint, and its 1868 is its own date, not the school's.

Schooling before the school: Under Father Hartman the church began sponsoring education, and the school's history states the uncertainty plainly: "it is not certain to what extent the project of school construction was achieved, as various accounts were given." The diocesan newspaper writes the same of the first school, "possibly as early as 1898, and named St. Rose Academy." That schooling is carried here as an account, not a date.

The 1911 building and the 1912 opening: St. Rose de Lima Academy was built during Father Felden's pastorship, its cornerstone laid in 1911 at a cost of $18,000: a basement, two classrooms and an auditorium, with the east wing housing the teaching sisters. Which sisters taught there is a question the sources answer two ways, and both answers stand here. The school's own history names the Sisters of St. Joseph, of the Convent of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and two sisters also staffed the commercial courses taught in a small home on the grounds, sold in 1931, when the courses moved into the auditorium. Today's Catholic, closing the school's centenary in March 2013, writes instead that "the School Sisters of St. Francis staffed the school when it opened in 1912 and continued until 1972." The school counts its own opening from 1912: its centennial year opened with a Mass by Bishop Emeritus John M. D'Arcy on March 18, 2012, and closed with Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades's Mass on March 17, 2013.

The St. Joseph name: Father Charles Marr, pastor from 1909 to 1922, remodeled and modernized, and finding the parish in debt sought St. Joseph's intercession in defraying it; his prayers were answered, the school's history says, "and soon the school became known as St. Joseph's School and no longer St. Rose de Lima Academy." Bathroom additions were installed in 1922, under Father Marr. In 1926 Dr. Connally donated his home to the parish, giving the sisters a private residence and enlarging the school; the basement became a recreation room in 1943; the auditorium was remodeled in 1958, adding two classrooms and a library. In 1972 the school sisters withdrew, and the school has been staffed solely by lay teachers since. A kindergarten class was added in 1998, and a school cafe began serving hot lunches in 2009.

Lay principals: Its lay principals, in the school's own order: Dennis Fletter, the first; Michael Casper; Carolyn Kirkendall, who served twenty-seven years; Stanley Liponoga IV, from 2012 to 2014; Gale Powelson, for five years; and Travis Heckber, the sixth, from the 2019-2020 school year, listed as principal on the school's own pages today, with the Reverend Dennis Di Benedetto as pastor. The school is accredited through Lumen, the diocesan accreditation, and counts seven full time teachers and four part time aides.

The move to Monroe Street: Monroeville Elementary School closed at the end of 2009-2010 in the East Allen consolidation, sat vacant a year, and went on the state list of schools for sale at the end of 2010-2011. The diocese offered $189,000 for the sixty-three thousand square foot building, and the East Allen board approved the sale on April 17, 2012, though the state law requiring a closed building to be offered to charter schools for up to forty-eight months delayed it; the agreement was signed on August 30, 2012. The school's own history gives the move twice, and both tellings stand: it says students and staff moved into the new site in November 2012, and also that "in 2013 the school purchased the former public school in town and moved all teaching to their Monroe St. campus on November 25, 2013." The diocesan newspaper fixes the later date: a statue ceremony planned for the first day was delayed by frozen ground to the second day, November 26, 2013, and Bishop Rhoades blessed the new chapel on December 5, 2013. With the move, the school took the parish's name again, St. Rose of Lima School.

The school today: St. Rose of Lima stands at 401 Monroe Street, telephone 260-623-3447. Its own pages count sixty-five families providing one hundred fifteen students, while the group entry in this history counts one hundred fourteen. East Allen County Schools provides transportation and speech therapy. Students play Catholic Youth Organization sports in grades five through eight, girls in volleyball, basketball and softball and boys in basketball, and archery is among the school's activities, its spring fundraiser an Archer Color Run; no mascot name is documented in the school's sources, and none is printed here.

Sources:

1. St. Rose of Lima School, Brief History (strosemonroeville.org): the mission parish of 1868, the academy of 1911, the St. Joseph name, the course to 2009, the lay principals and the move
2. Today's Catholic, March 19, 2013, "St. Rose of Lima School completes centennial year of education": the possibly 1898 first school, the School Sisters of St. Francis from 1912 to 1972, and the centennial Masses of March 18, 2012 and March 17, 2013
3. Today's Catholic, December 10, 2013, "St. Rose of Lima School receives blessing at new location": the blessing of December 5, 2013, teaching begun November 25, 2013, and the restoration of the parish name
4. St. Rose of Lima School, Curriculum and school pages (strosemonroeville.org): Principal Mr. Travis Heckber, Pastor Rev. Dennis Di Benedetto, Lumen accreditation, the staff count, and the count of 65 families and 115 students
5. Private School Review, St. Rose of Lima School, Monroeville (verified school update): the address, the telephone and grades kindergarten through 8
6. Moosed History, "The Catholic Grade Schools of Fort Wayne and Allen County": the count of 114 students