Roman Catholic Diocesan Schools in Santa Ana, California are private

parochial schools A parochial school is a private primary or secondary school affiliated with a religious organization, and whose curriculum includes general religious education in addition to secular subjects, such as science, mathematics and language arts. The wo ...

operated by the

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...

in Santa Ana,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Listing of schools

K-8 schools

;School of Our Lady :2204 W. McFadden Ave. :Santa Ana, CA 92704 :http://schoolofourlady.org ;Santa Ana Nativity School :601 N. Western Ave. :Santa Ana, 92703-2930 ;Saint Joseph School :608 Civic Center Drive East :Santa Ana, CA 92701-4199 ;Saint Barbara School :5306 West McFadden Avenue :Santa Ana, CA 92704-1799 ;Saint Anne School :1324 South Main Street :Santa Ana, CA 92707-0173

High school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

; Mater Dei High School :1202 West Edinger Avenue :Santa Ana, CA 92707-2191

School histories

School of Our Lady

School of Our Lady is a

Catholic school Catholic schools are pre-primary, primary and secondary educational institutions administered under the aegis or in association with the Catholic Church. , the Catholic Church operates the world's largest religious, non-governmental school syste ...

established in January 2005 under the auspices of the

Bishop of Orange The ancient residential diocese of Orange in the Comtat Venaissin in Provence, a fief belonging to the Papacy, was suppressed by the French government during the French Revolution. It was revived in 2009 as a titular see of the Roman Catholic Ch ...

, the pastors of

Immaculate Heart of Mary The Immaculate Heart of Mary () is a Roman Catholic devotional name used to refer to the Catholic view of the interior life of Mary, mother of Jesus, her joys and sorrows, her virtues and hidden perfections, and, above all, her virginal love ...

, Our Lady of the Pillar parishes, the Office of Faith Formation for the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange The Diocese of Orange (Latin language, Latin: ''Dioecesis Arausicanae in California''; Spanish language, Spanish: Diócesis de Orange; Vietnamese language, Vietnamese: ''Giáo phận Quận Cam'') is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or dio ...

and the principal of the school. It serves children from the two parishes and surrounding parishes. The school opened in the

academic year An academic year or school year is a period of time which schools, colleges and universities use to measure a quantity of study. School holiday School holidays (also referred to as vacations, breaks, and recess) are the periods during which sch ...

2005–06 with a K - 8 educational program. The school is housed in an existing, renovated 16 classroom facility on the grounds that is the parish of

. The grounds of Immaculate Heart of Mary parish are spacious enough to support a large asphalt playground with existing courts for

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

etc., a grass field that meets the requirements for

flag football Flag football is a variant of American football where, instead of tackling players to the ground, the defensive team must remove a flag or flag belt from the ball carrier ("deflagging") to end a Down (gridiron football), down. The sport has a ...

, a covered lunch table area, and a safety approved piece of playground equipment that can support the student body. Immaculate Heart of Mary parish was established in 1960 and Our Lady of the Pillar Parish was established in 1965. Both

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

es had functioning schools through the end of the school year 2005. At the request of the

, a

committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...

was formed to conduct an extensive study of the two schools in 2004. The study was based on diminishing enrollment and extensive financial support given from the parishes to the schools for

operating expense An operating expense, operating expenditure, operational expense, operational expenditure or opex is an ongoing cost for running a product, business, or system . Its counterpart, a capital expenditure (capex), is the cost of developing or provid ...

s. Upon reviewing all of the data from the committee, a decision was made by the Bishop of Orange and his Executive Committee to

merge Merge, merging, or merger may refer to: Concepts * Merge (traffic), the reduction of the number of lanes on a road * Merge (linguistics), a basic syntactic operation in generative syntax in the Minimalist Program * Merger (politics), the comb ...

the two schools. That merger resulted in the formation of School of Our Lady. School of Our Lady

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative assistant, Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an admini ...

and faculty are certified, credentialed

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

s in accordance with the standards set by the

Institute of Pastoral Ministry An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes can ...

for the Diocese of Orange and the

California State Department of Education The California Department of Education is an agency within the Government of California that oversees public education. The department oversees funding and testing, and holds local educational agencies accountable for student achievement. Its st ...

. The teacher/student class ratio at School of Our Lady is set at approximately 30 to 1, except in the primary class rooms where aides are utilized to help implement the academic program under the direction of the classroom teacher. The largest class for the school year 2006-2007 has 25 students. In addition to standard core curriculum subjects, School of Our Lady offers Technology, Music, Art, Dance, PE and Library. A Title 1 tutor is available two days a week for eligible students and a faculty Inclusion Teacher is available to provide one on one tutoring for all School of Our Lady students regardless of income or residence . Extra-curricular activities include team sports (football, basketball, volleyball and softball,) newspaper, altar servers, and choir. Band is offered through the Mater Dei Band program. Santa Ana Education in Santa Ana, California