St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Classical School
ABOUT · OUR HISTORY

A short history of the school

✦
Founded in 1951
Saint Charles Borromeo has served the Spokane, WA area for more than seventy years. What follows is a brief account of how the school came to be, and how it has continued to evolve.
  1. MCML
    A.D. 1950
    Construction begins.
    Ground was broken for Saint Charles Catholic School in 1950, answering a growing need in the area for more Catholic schools.
  2. MCMLI
    A.D. 1951
    The doors open.
    The school opened to students for the first time in 1951. The original building had a single wing and served about 200 students.
  3. MCMLVII
    A.D. 1957
    Three more wings.
    By 1957, three additional wings had opened, expanding the school to serve more than 700 students.
  4. MCMXCII
    A.D. 1992
    The Sisters conclude their service.
    The Sisters of Saint Francis of Philadelphia staffed the school from its founding until 1992 — more than four decades of teaching and formation.
  5. MMXX
    A.D. 2020
    Transition to Catholic Classical.
    Faced with declining enrollment, the school transitioned to a Catholic classical model and began to grow once again.
Borromean rings
"Tradition is not the worship of ashes,
but the preservation of fire."
— GUSTAV MAHLER