The parish schools: St. Joseph, St. Monica, St. Bavo — and the one school they became

1864–present · three parishes, one school from 2011

St. Joseph School, the mother school: The Catholic school web begins in the mother parish's vestry, where St. Joseph's children were taught until 1864, when a brick schoolhouse rose on Spring Street behind the church. The diocesan history of Bishop John Henry Alerding, The Diocese of Fort Wayne, 1857–1907, read in its transcription, gives the course: a frame schoolhouse on Fourth Street in 1870; an addition in 1876; a later school on Mill Street; and by 1907 a school taught by seven Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ sisters with 350 pupils enrolled. The Poor Handmaids — whose 1878 arrival in Mishawaka stands in the Religion section — were the parish-school web's first great staffing order, and St. Joseph's was its flagship: the largest Catholic grade school in the city across the turn of the century.

The web at its widest: As the parishes multiplied, so did their schools: St. Monica's and St. Bavo's parish schools stood for generations alongside St. Joseph's — the diocese's own 2017 account credits the three schools together with more than 300 years of combined history. The individual founding years of the St. Monica and St. What the record does carry whole is the web's ending and remaking.

The consolidation, 2009–2011: The idea formed in 2009, on the diocese's account, out of concern for quality and low enrollments pressing all three schools; the diocesan superintendent of Catholic schools, Dr. Mark Myers, carried it, and a committee of two representatives from each parish — with Marian's principal Loesch and Fr. Anthony Szakaly, C.S.C., among its members — recommended the merger unanimously. Bishop Rhoades accepted the recommendation by letter of 22 September 2010, and the closings printed as they happened: the St. Bavo, St. Joseph and St. Monica schools closed at the end of the 2010–11 school year, and in the fall of 2011 one inter-parochial school opened in their place — Mishawaka Catholic School — distributed across the three campuses by grade band: the St. Bavo campus holds early childhood through grade 2; the St. Joseph campus, grades 3 through 5; the St. Monica campus, grades 6 through 8. The three parishes remain distinct; the school is one. Jennifer Schwab was named the school's principal in April 2016, and by 2017 the school stood under an executive-pastor model. The arrangement stands current in November 2026: the St. Bavo Campus is named in the parish bulletins of 2026, and St. Monica's parish contact runs through the Mishawaka Catholic domain — three campuses, three parishes, one school, fifteen years on.

Sources:

1. John Henry Alerding, The Diocese of Fort Wayne, 1857–1907 (St. Joseph School's course and the 1907 enrollment), via theRootsWeb transcription.
2. Bishop John M. Rhoades, consolidation letter, Diocese of Fort Wayne–South Bend (diocesefwsb.org), 22 September 2010.
3. Today's Catholic, Mishawaka Catholic School profiles and diocesan reporting, 2016–2017.
4. St. Bavo and St. Monica parish publications, 2026 (the arrangement's present state).