Covington Catholic High School

In 1925 Bishop Howard requested the Brothers of Mary to open a Boys’ Central High School in the city of Covington. The Brothers agreed to undertake the new project. Monsignor Henry Tappert, Pastor of Mother of God Parish, offered the facilities of the parish school building to house the new Central High School. On August 28, 1925, Reverend Brother George Sauer, S.M., Provincial Inspector of the Brothers of Mary, came to Covington to make final arrangements with Bishop Howard for the opening of the school.

 Brother Anthony Weber, S.M., Director and Principal of St. Joseph Boys’ School was appointed Principal of Covington Catholic High School, as the new school was called. With the opening of Covington Catholic High School in 1925, one room on the first floor of Mother of God Parish school was given over to the group of forty boys, who formed the nucleus of the new High School. On November 8, 1925, Bishop Howard issued directives for the new Covington Central High School stating that “the classes were to be limited to thirty-five boys; the student body was not to exceed two hundred and fifty to three hundred boys; conduct, application to study and work were to be the criteria for remaining in school.”

 In 1926 the enrollment increased to eighty-four, the student body at that time being accommodated in three classrooms. During the course of that year (1926), the Bishop and faculty discussed the addition of chemistry and physics laboratories, classrooms, sports, an augmented schedule of studies—all items of interest to a new High School foundation. On July 18, 1927, the two Brothers of Mary who had continued to teach at St. Joseph school were withdrawn from the Diocese, and the Brothers from that time confined their educational work in the Diocese to the recently established and growing Covington Catholic Central High School.

 On January 7, 1929, Brother Anthony Weber made application to the Department of Education, Frankfort, Kentucky, for the approval of the school by the State of Kentucky. During that year a representative of the State Department made a thorough inspection of the school, and on Mary 25, 1929, official notification was received that Covington Catholic High School had been accredited by the State as a First Class “A” High School. The school has continued to remain on the list of accredited Class “A” Schools of the State of Kentucky. In the same year, the school was accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools.

 On Sunday, May 7, 1950, a diocesan observance of the Centennial of the Brothers of Mary in the United States was held at St. Mary Cathedral, Covington, which occasion also marked the sixty-fifth anniversary of the Marianists in the Diocese of Covington. The Centennial observance likewise commemorated the death of the Reverend William Joseph Chaminade, Founder of the Society, whose death occurred on January 22, 1850.

 With the opening of Covington Catholic High School in the fall of 1952, the increased enrollment presented an acute problem. It was evident that immediate action would have to be taken for the expansion of facilities to enable the school to accommodate the number of boys seeking admission. In May, 1952, Bishop Mulloy appointed the Pastors of the area served by the school—Covington, West Covington, Park Hills, Ludlow and Fort Mitchell—members of a Planning and Building Committee for a new Covington Catholic High School building. The proposed new High School, which is to be built on a fourteen acre tract of land on Dixie Highway, Lookout Heights, will accommodate six hundred students. 

excerpted from History of the Diocese of Covington, Kentucky, on the Occasion of the Centenary of the Diocese, 1853-1953, by Rev. Paul E. Ryan