Central Catholic High School (CCHS or Central Catholic) is a private co-educational Catholic high school in Bloomington, Illinois, United States. It serves approximately 320 students in the Bloomington-Normal area. CCHS is one of seven Catholic high schools in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Peoria and the only Catholic high school in McLean County.

Begun in 1886 as St. Mary's High School by Holy Trinity Parish as an extension of the parish grade school, it was renamed Trinity High School in 1928 after construction of a separate high school building. In 1967, the school was renamed again to Central Catholic High School to reflect new roles of other regional parishes in oversight of the school. In 2003 CCHS moved from its location near downtown Bloomington to its current east side location on Airport Road. The school building is more than 100,000 square feet on a fifteen-acre property and has capacity for 500 students.

CCHS offers Advanced Placement and dual credit courses. Vocational education is available through a partnership with the Bloomington Area Career Center. A large majority of Central Catholic graduates pursue further education. In addition to coursework, Central Catholic requires community service as part of its graduation requirements.

Extracurricular activities at the school include sports teams, student clubs and organizations. CCHS participates in Illinois High School Association athletics and is a member of Illini Prairie Conference. Teams at CCHS have won state championships in boys' and girls' basketball, football, girls' track and field, and volleyball.

History

St. Mary's High School

CCHS has roots in St. Mary's School, built at a cost of $26,000 by Holy Trinity Parish in 1884 during the pastorate of Michael Weldon. The building was located at the northeast corner of the intersection of Locust and Center Streets in Bloomington, Illinois. Initially only a grade school, the building was altered in 1886 to add high school classes. Two graduates in 1898 composed the high school's first graduating class. The parish paid off the debt for the school building in 1909. In 1912 Illinois State University and the University of Illinois recognized St. Mary's high school curriculum. The graduating class that spring had twenty students.

Sinsinawa Dominican sisters served as faculty at St. Mary's and subsequently at Trinity High School, teaching nearly all classes until the 1950s. Catholic priests, however, taught boys' religious educations for three years of high school.

Trinity High School

By 1920, inspectors from the University of Illinois and the Illinois Department of Education were dissatisfied with the high school facilities at St. Mary's School. With the student body growing, land for a separate high school building next to Holy Trinity Church at 712 North Center Street was purchased from the Dominican sisters in summer 1922 for $25,000. However, due to the poor health of pastor Michael Weldon, construction was postponed until after his death The cornerstone of the school building was laid on 25 September 1927. Costing $285,000, the building was completed on 3 September 1928 and opened one week later as Trinity High School. Fifty-nine seniors graduated the following June. The St. Mary's School building was renovated in summer 1928 and continued to serve as Holy Trinity Grade School before demolition in 1969.

In 1929, Trinity High School gained accreditation from the North Central Association. The school joined the IHSA in 1941 when private schools were first allowed to participate. A $300,000 funding drive in 1954 financed the additions of a cafeteria and south annex to the school. The annex initially housed 7th and 8th grade classrooms to alleviate overcrowding at Holy Trinity Grade School. After construction of new grade schools in 1963, annex classrooms were used for math and physical education classes.

Central Catholic High School

Center Street In the fall of 1967, Trinity High School became a diocesan school and was renamed Central Catholic High School after the diocese requested other regional parishes join in governing and subsidizing the school. Private donations in 1991 and 1992 funded renovations to the chemistry lab, the creation of computer lab, and updates to the biology lab. In compliance with a diocesan directive, Central Catholic implemented mandatory hair sample drug testing of students beginning in 2000.

Central Catholic High School's Center Street gymnasium, nicknamed "The Pit" in the 1970s, was known for its high temperatures, loud water hammers, and for intimidating visiting teams due to the close proximity of the stands to the gym floor.

Airport Road Church officials began discussing sites for a new school building in 1996, initially considering a west side location in the former Chicago & Alton railroad yards. This site was later rejected due to the large amount of environmental cleanup needed. In February 1998, school officials announced plans to construct a new school building in east or southeast Bloomington after renovation of the existing building was deemed too expensive. That July, the pastors' board announced fifteen acres of Deneen family farmland in east Bloomington were reserved for a new school building. An $11 million fundraising effort to build a new school on the land gifted to the diocese began in 2001.

Construction started on 12 August 2002 with an estimated cost of $11.4 million. In June 2003, Mark Williams - pastor of Holy Trinity Parish - announced the decision to demolish the old school building as renovation and repurposing at an estimated cost of $4 million was considered too expensive. The new building at 1201 Airport Road opened on 25 August 2003 with 323 students enrolled that fall. In June and July 2004, the Center Street school building was razed and in the following year Bill Hundman Memorial Field was completed.

In 2005, the CCHS accountant was charged with embezzling money from the school. CCHS enrollment peaked in 2009 with 423 students. As $2,000,000 in financial pledges for construction of the new school building were left unfulfilled, capital campaigns at the four regional Catholic parishes were started in 2011 to pay off the remaining debt. A 2013 upgrade installed school-wide wireless internet access in conjunction with a new bring your own device program. A student center and welcome center were added in summer 2015 renovations. By 2016, enrollment at the school had dropped, attributed in part to the diminished presence of State Farm Insurance in the area.

In March 2022, it was announced that the school would shift to a President-Principal model, with principal Sean Foster named as the first president of the school effective in July 2022. The next month, Chris McGraw was named the next principal with Sean Foster moving to a superintendent role.

Between 1898 and 2014, 6,556 students graduated from the school. This includes 406 students from St. Mary's High School between 1898 and 1928 as well as 2,482 students from Trinity High School between 1929 and 1967.

Campus Central Catholic High School is located on a 15-acre site at 1201 Airport Road in Bloomington, Illinois. The school property is bordered to the west by Airport Road and to the south by Cornelius Drive. McGraw Park borders the school property to the north and east.

Enclosing more than 100,000 square feet with a capacity for 500 students, the school building is divided into two wings. The academic wing contains sixteen classrooms, four science labs, two art labs, computer lab, and the student center. The social wing is bounded on one end by the 1400-seat Cvengros Gymnasium and on the other by the performing arts center - a 560-seat auditorium, audio lab, band room, and chorus room. Between are a 100-seat chapel, cafeteria, commons area, faculty dining area, welcome center, main office, weight room and four locker rooms.

A roundabout lies on the south side of the school building. On the north side is the school parking lot and Bill Hundman Memorial Field, which contains the school football field and track. CCHS uses McGraw Park facilities for baseball, softball, and tennis.

Demographics Enrollment for the 2016-2017 school year was 317. The student body in the 2016-2017 school year was 87% white, 6% Hispanic and 7% other. Also in that year, 50% of the student body was female and 50% was male. 6% of students were from families that qualify for lunch subsidies and 4% of students received special education services. 41% of students received tuition assistance in 2015 with an average of $1094 received per student.

In the 2012-2013 school year, 56% percent of teachers were female and 44% were male. More than half of the faculty has a graduate degree.

Academics

Curriculum

+Course requirements for graduationCourseCreditsTheology4English4Mathematics3Science3Social Studies2.5Foreign Language/Fine Arts/2Wellness (PE and Health)2Consumer education0.5Write, cite, and communicate0.5Comprehensive Fine Arts0.5Electives3Minimum total credits25

The Central Catholic High School curriculum emphasizes college preparation. The school requires a total of twenty-five credits of coursework to graduate. Each semester-long course is worth 0.5 credits. Students must also complete a diocesan religion exam, pass the state constitution exam, and perform 5 hours of community service per quarter. At least four of these quarterly hours must be connected to the Catholic Works of Mercy or assist the local parishes. More than 11,000 service hours are performed by students annually.

Students generally take electives in their junior and senior years. Central Catholic offers Advanced Placement courses in English Language and Composition, English Literature and Composition, Calculus, Chemistry, Physics, and U.S. History. On-campus dual credit introductory courses in psychology and sociology are available to juniors and seniors in partnership with Heartland Community College. Upperclassmen may also take vocational education courses through the Bloomington Area Career Center at Bloomington High School. Driver education classes are provided by Normal Community High School.

About forty-six percent of CCHS students take an art class and thirty-one percent take a music class. Approximately half of students take at least one AP course before graduating.

Schedule The CCHS school year generally runs from late-August to late-May and is divided into two eighteen-week semesters and four nine-week quarters. Students typically take eight classes per semester. Classes are held on a block schedule with navy and gold days. There are 4 blocks per day, switching every other day with 4 other blocks. Each block is generally eighty minutes long. The CCHS school day runs from 8:20 AM to 3:10 PM.

Tests, rankings, and statistics CCHS has a 100% four-year graduation rate. Nearly 99% of graduates between 2012 and 2016 sought a college degree or joined the military. In 2016, 84% of graduates planned to attend a four-year college or university, 14% planned to attend a two-year college, and 1% joined the workforce.

The average ACT test score for the class of 2016 was 24.5 compared to a state and national average of 20.8. This score was in the top 15% of scores nationally that year. In the 2015-2016 school year, seventy-five students taking a total of 146 AP exams produced twenty-four scores of 5 and seventy-seven scores of 3 or 4. 37% of 2017 graduates passed at least one AP test. Between 2009 and 2016 the school had seven national merit finalists, four national merit semi-finalists, and twenty-three national merit commended scholars among juniors who took the PSAT/NMSQT.