Peoria Notre Dame High School

Peoria Notre Dame High School is a Catholic parochial high school in Peoria, Illinois. It is the largest school in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Peoria with approximately 815 students. It has a college preparatory curriculum, and according to the school, most of the students graduating in recent years went on to college. The school uses an academy system with a trustee committee, oversight board, pastor's board, president, and principal. History Peoria Notre Dame school traces its roots back to 1863, when Father Abram Ryan and seven Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet founded a parochial school to educate young Catholic women in Peoria that would become Academy of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, known usually by the shorter name, Academy of Our Lady. A school for boys would later be established in 1899 and be called Spalding Institute, named for John Lancaster Spalding, the first bishop of the Peoria. The two schools were located across the street from each other and existed as separate schools with separate classes until 1973 when the administrations were merged into Academy of Our Lady/Spalding Institute. The former buildings of the Academy/Spalding campus are contributing properties of the North Side Historic District, located just north of downtown Peoria across Interstate 74. Bergan High School was established in 1964 in what was then north Peoria near the intersection of Sheridan Road and Glen Avenue. The school was named for Gerald Thomas Bergan, a graduate of Spalding Institute who was serving as Archbishop of Omaha. The school was established as co-ed (though classes were taught segregated by sex), contrary to Spalding and Academy which were separate at the time.