St. Michael has an unbroken legacy of Catholic education stretching back more than 140 years. The first public school house in the village was constructed in 1869, but St. Michael’s pastor, Fr. Ignatius Schaller, believed it was essential to provide a place in which the teachings and traditions of the Catholic Church could be taught.
The first Catholic school was completed in the summer of 1876. It was two and-a-half stories: The first floor was classroom space, and the upper floors served as a convent for three School Sisters of Notre Dame and as boarding rooms for female students. That fall the school welcomed 15 students; during the winter, when farm work was less, enrollment jumped to 120 students. Tuition was $7.50 a month with room and board, and a dollar a month without.
Pictured: The first St. Michael Catholic School and convent was built in 1876. Photos courtesy of parishioner Bob Zahler
According to a story recounted in Faith, Family and Farming: A History of St. Michael, Minnesota by Bob Zahler (page 192), Fr. Schaller had planned for years to bring the Schools Sisters to St. Michael. When one young girl asked for advice about entering religious life, he said he would tell her in time when and where she should go. She waited patiently for several years, then told him she planned to join a convent in St. Paul. Instead, he sent her to Milwaukee, to Mother Caroline of the School Sisters of Notre Dame—who had said years before she would send him nuns to teach at the school when he sent her a candidate for religious life. The relationship with St. Michael proved fruitful: 54 local girls became School Sisters in the following years.
A second Catholic school building was constructed and used from 1899 to 1940, with the original building serving as an expanded convent. The current building was completed in 1940 and included public education spaces and community-wide facilities such as a multipurpose gymnasium/ auditorium and a bowling alley. In 1950, the school added 9th grade while plans were developed to build a Catholic high school. Construction of the new high school (now the community education building behind the historic church) was completed in fall of 1953. In 1958, the parish built a new convent next to the Catholic primary school, and in 1962, added a wing to the 1940 school to provide a cafeteria and more classroom space.
Pictured: The current school was originally built in 1940 and included a bowling alley and other public amenities. Photos courtesy of parishioner Bob Zahler
Sixty years later, these facilities are still in use—and St. Michael Catholic School continues to provide a great education rooted in Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church. The last Catholic high school class graduated in 1968 and for a number of years, the school only went through grade 6, but in the past decade it is again growing, adding grades 7 and 8 in the main building and a preschool nearby. The 1958 convent has been remodeled to serve as offices and connected to the school with a handicap-accessible, secure main entrance. St. Michael Catholic School remains one of the most important ministries of the parish today—an essential piece of our blessed heritage and a foundation of faith for next generation.