- St. Jerome Catholic School
- About Us
About Us
Welcome to St. Jerome Catholic School
We take pride in being more than just a school. Here, we are family.
We take pride in being more than just a school. Here, we are family.
Embracing and extending the mission of Christ and the Catholic Church through academics, community and service.
St. Jerome Catholic School works to inspire our students, families, and staff to be informed and ethical leaders who possess and share a lasting love of learning and a lifelong commitment to Catholic values and service.
Prayer, study, community, and ministry, the four pillars of the founding Dominican Sisters, are the basis of St. Jerome’s core values. The school shares the responsibility with parents for the religious, intellectual, moral, physical, and social formation of children at St. Jerome. It is expected students will accept the challenge to grow in a life of Christian service.
St. Jerome is an educational family that engenders heart-felt respect for each child.
On July 4, 1960, Bishop Wendelin J. Nold purchased a remote 14 acre tract which became the home of St. Jerome Parish. In appointing Rev. Msgr. Alfred W. Raye as the founding pastor, he told him, “I’m giving you 14 acres of Johnson grass and good luck.” The original tract included Kempwood. The parish later sold this land for the street and townhouses and began buying lots to the south of property, one by one.
Among the first orders of business, Fr. Raye established a parochial school, a parish religious education program, a woman’s club, a CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) chapter, a Holy Name Society and a Parish Council. Fr. Raye was known for his strict policy, “Mass isn’t over until the last blessing,” and heaven help those who tried to leave early. His favorite saying was, “What we do for each other must be secondary to what we do for God.”
On September 4, 1962, St. Jerome Catholic School opened it’s doors to the first classes, with 405 students in grades K-5th. Plans to add a grade per year afterward, until the full eight grades were in operation, were a success.
Rev. Msgr. Dan Scheel, our present pastor, came to St. Jerome in 1994. He has been the catalyst in building the parish into what it is today, both physically and spiritually. Under his leadership, St. Jerome has blossomed into a larger, ever more loving, multi-cultural parish.