Aurora Central Catholic High School (ACC) is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

under the direction of the Diocese of Rockford. ACC began as two separate secondary schools in 1926. Madonna Catholic High School, a girls school, and Roncalli High School, a boys school, merged in 1968 to become Aurora Central Catholic. The first campus was located on the east side of

Aurora, Illinois Aurora is a city in northeastern Illinois, United States. It is located along the Fox River (Illinois River tributary), Fox River west of Chicago. It is the List of municipalities in Illinois, second-most populous city in Illinois, with a popul ...

, in what is now Cowherd Middle School. The school moved to its current location, on Aurora's west side, in 1995. The 2023 student body was about 450 students.

Academics

Aurora Central Catholic requires 28 credits for graduation. However, because of the

block scheduling Block scheduling or blocking is a type of academic scheduling used in some schools in the American K-12, K-12 system, in which Student, students have fewer but longer classes per day than in a traditional academic schedule. It is more common in m ...

system, many students graduate with 30 or 32 credits. There is a wide range of courses and levels offered which includes honors, independent study, and Advanced Placement (AP) courses. The Aurora Central Catholic High School Class of 2009 had ten Illinois State Scholars. This year ACC claimed its college-bound students earned over $5.2 million in scholarship money. This amount is higher than the Class of 2006's $3.7 million. Over 95% of ACC graduates go on to secondary education at various respective universities and colleges throughout the country. The school was recognized as one of the top 50 Catholic high schools in the United States in 2004 and 2005.

Athletics

ACC participates in multiple classes (depending on the sport) in the Illinois High School Association. ACC is a member of the Chicago Catholic League for boys and the Girls Catholic Athletic Conference for girls as of the 2023-24 school year. Teams are stylized as the Chargers.

Notable alumni

Kevin Dunn Kevin Dunn (born August 24, 1955) is an American character actor who has appeared in supporting roles in numerous films and television series since the 1980s. Dunn's roles include White House Communications Director Alan Reed in the political ...

, actor *

Joe Birkett Joseph E. Birkett (born February 13, 1955) is an appellate court judge on the Illinois Appellate Court – Second District. He was appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court in December 2010, and was subsequently elected to a full term in November ...

DuPage County, Illinois DuPage County ( ) is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Illinois, and one of the collar counties of the Chicago metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 932,877, making it List of ...

State's Attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, county prosecutor, state attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or solicitor is the chief prosecutor or chief law enforcement officer represen ...

Bob Kipper Robert Wayne Kipper (born July 8, 1964) is an American professional baseball coach and a former Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher. He has also spent two terms (all of the 2002 season, and part of the 2015 season) as bullpen coach of MLB's Bos ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

player and coach *

Tim Buckley Timothy Charles Buckley III (February 14, 1947 – June 29, 1975) was an American musician. He began his career based in folk rock, but subsequently experimented with genres such as psychedelia, jazz, the avant-garde, and funk paired with his ...

, NCAA Men's Basketball Coach University of South Carolina *

Kathleen Vinehout Kathleen Vinehout (born June 16, 1958) is a former Democratic member of the Wisconsin Senate, representing the 31st district since 2007. She was an unsuccessful primary candidate for Governor of Wisconsin in the 2012 recall election against S ...

Wisconsin State Senate The Wisconsin Senate is the upper house of the Wisconsin State Legislature. Together with the Wisconsin State Assembly they constitute the legislative branch of the state of Wisconsin. The powers of the Wisconsin Senate are modeled after those o ...

''Wisconsin Blue Book 2007-2008'', Biographical Sketch of Kathleen Vinehout, p. 80.

References

External links

Aurora Central Catholic High School

Central Times Online
ACC student newspaper website
Illinois High School Association
detailed athletics information {{authority control Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockford Catholic secondary schools in Illinois Educational institutions established in 1968 Educational institutions established in 1926 Education in Aurora, Illinois 1926 establishments in Illinois