St. Pius X Catholic School: the parish builds its school

2006–present · 52553 Fir Road

For its first half-century the parish had children but no school: the Story of Granger section leg carries the parish's founding whole — the St. Joseph's Farm chapel community, the Fir Road church, formal establishment in 1956 — and one of its details belongs to this section because it is a school fact: from 1951 the farm parish joined Christ the King and Little Flower to help the Sisters of Holy Cross build a school at St. Mary's, and St. Pius children rode a bus to the St. Mary's Campus School until that school closed in June 1969. Granger's Catholic schooling for two generations was something that happened somewhere else. The parish's own growth ended the arrangement's logic: by the 2000s the parish counted its families in the thousands and its religious-education children at some 1,200, taught in seven classrooms. The answer was the Parish Education Center — a 58,000-square-foot, roughly $10-million building raised beside the church to hold a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school, the religious education program, and adult education and athletics under one roof. The diocesan paper of record covered the start: on October 22, 2006, the parish gathered for the groundbreaking with Bishop John M. D'Arcy presiding, and construction began the next day, October 23. The center was dedicated on August 24, 2008.

The school opened that August, and its founding distinction is a diocesan one: Saint Pius X Catholic School, pre-kindergarten through grade 8, opened in August 2008 in the new Parish Education Center — the first newly built kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school constructed in the Diocese of Fort Wayne–South Bend since the Second Vatican Council, on the associate pastor's contemporary account in the diocesan paper. Elaine Holmes was its founding principal, and the school's own strategic plan pairs her tenure with the pastor's as the twin leadership of the school's thriving years: Holmes served from the opening until the fall of 2023, when Chris Milliron assumed the principalship; he holds it as the school's 2024-2029 strategic plan prints it. One conflict in the parish record must print whole, because the two documents are both the institution's own: the parish history read for the Story of Granger section leg carries Msgr. William C. Schooler, pastor from the 2001 handover from the Congregation of Holy Cross, as still holding the pastorate; the school's strategic plan for 2024–2029 records that in the summer of 2024 Msgr. Michael Heintz took over for Fr. Bill as pastor. The plan is the later document and the school's own filing, and this entry follows it for the school's account; the Religion section's parish entry carries the conform. The school was named a National Blue Ribbon School in 2015. Its enrollment course, at the strengths the sources give: the school's current FAQ puts kindergarten through grade 8 at some 540–570 students, with 100–120 more in its Little Lions Preschool; a recent NCES Private School Survey return carried 647 students, pre-kindergarten through grade 8; and the school's strategic plan reports the total enrollment "at near capacity with 675 students" in 2024-25. As the school stands in November 2026: pre-kindergarten through grade 8 at 52553 Fir Road, Chris Milliron principal, the parish's school and the only parochial school seated in the CDP.

Sources:

1. Today's Catholic (Diocese of Fort Wayne–South Bend), October 29, 2006 (the October 22, 2006 groundbreaking with Bishop John M. D'Arcy; construction to begin October 23; the estimated $10-million, 58,000-square-foot Parish Education Center; 1,200 religious-education children in seven classrooms; the center to house a K-8 parochial school — the first newly built K-8 in the diocese since the Second Vatican Council), diocesan paper of record, read from the paper's PDF archive.
2. Saint Pius X Catholic School, Strategic Plan 2024–2029 (the school opened August 2008 in the Parish Education Center; Elaine Holmes principal from the opening, Chris Milliron from fall 2023; Msgr. Michael Heintz pastor from summer 2024; enrollment at near capacity with 675 students in 2024-25), the school's own filing, read first-hand.
3. Saint Pius X Catholic School, FAQ, stpiuscatholicschool.net (kindergarten through grade 8 at approximately 540–570 students; 100–120 preschool students; the Little Lions Preschool), read November 2026.
4. NCES Private School Survey via UnivStats (647 students, pre-kindergarten through grade 8; 52553 Fir Road).
5. The Story of Granger section leg of this build (the parish course whole; the St. Mary's Campus School bus arrangement, 1951–June 1969; the Parish Education Center dedicated August 24, 2008; the National Blue Ribbon of 2015; the Schooler pastorate as the parish history carries it — conflict printed above), cross-referenced.