Notre Dame Catholic School was 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 ...

high 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., ...

middle school Middle school, also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school, is an educational stage between primary school and secondary school. Afghanistan In Afghanistan, middle school includes g ...

, and

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

Wichita Falls Wichita Falls ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Wichita County, Texas, United States. It is the principal city of the Wichita Falls metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses all of Archer, Clay, and Wichita Counties. According to ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. It was located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth. Notre Dame Catholic School was one school on two campuses. The lower campus accommodated pre-K through 5th grade. The upper campus accommodated 6th through 12th grade. The traditions of the institution were drawn from the Sisters of Saint Mary of Namur who, in 1904, founded the original school which was known as the Academy of Mary Immaculate. The Congregation of the Holy Cross who joined the Sisters of Saint Mary when the school was broadened to include high school age boys. The original school, which stood on the corner of Holliday and Ninth Streets, was the center of Catholic education in North Central Texas, being the only Catholic school from Fort Worth, 114 miles to the southeast, to Clarendon, 118 miles to the northwest. The present elementary school campus opened in the Fall of 1954 and was known as Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish School. In 1968, Sacred Heart Parish School merged with Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish School, creating a multi-parish school. Today, students attend from these parishes, as well as most of the Catholic parishes in the three-county metro area. Nate Blakeslee of ''

Texas Monthly ''Texas Monthly'' (stylized as ''TexasMonthly'') is a monthly American magazine headquartered in Downtown Austin, Texas. Founded in 1973 by Michael R. Levy, ''Texas Monthly'' chronicles life in contemporary Texas, writing on politics, the Natura ...

'' stated that as

Michael Fors Olson Michael Fors Olson (born June 29, 1966) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He has been serving as bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth, Diocese of Fort Worth in Texas since 2014. Biography Early life and educat ...

began his term as bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth, Notre Dame "had suffered waning attendance and was in need of major repairs."

Closure

After experiencing years of falling enrollment, the cost of deferred maintenance, and a negative balance sheet which forced "Notre Dame to spend virtually all its $581,772 in savings that were on hand at the beginning of the 2014 school year and to borrow approximately $815,000 from the Diocese to cover many of its operational expenses," in March 2021 the Diocese of Fort Worth announced that the school would be shut down at the end of the school year. The high school component is now demolished, with the elementary school remaining. Former principal Joe Cluley stated that right as the closure was happening, the school had "finally turned a corner" and that it would have been economical to repair the school. Additionally, some area parents criticized the closure in Wichita Falls-area media outlets.

References

External links

Official website
Catholic secondary schools in Texas 1904 establishments in Texas Educational institutions established in 1904 High schools in Wichita Falls, Texas Private K–12 schools in Texas 2021 disestablishments in Texas Educational institutions disestablished in 2021 {{Texas-high-school-stub