St. Bernard's High School (Fitchburg, Massachusetts)


St. Bernard's High School is a Private Catholic high school in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. It is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester on 45 Harvard Street in Fitchburg, Massachusetts.
St. Bernard's High School boasts a century of rich, Catholic history and storied traditions and holds steadfast in its mission to, “proudly educate its students in a Christ-centered, student-focused, college preparatory environment. By providing a safe and structured academic climate, St. Bernard's recognizes and promotes each student's unique gifts and talents, in both curricular and extracurricular realms.  A St. Bernard's education builds a bridge to the future, while maintaining ties to the school's rich past. In doing so, St. Bernard's strives to produce community leaders who embrace the school's maxim: Love One Another.
St. Bernard's welcomes students of all faiths. 75% of the current students are Catholic. 25% of the current students are from several different religions.
St. Bernard's offers financial aid and scholarships to qualified candidates. Current students receive over $200,000 of financial aid and scholarships. 50% of St. Bernard's students some financial support.

Deeds, Not Words

was a nun in Ireland in the 1700s who went out at night with a lantern to educate poor Irish children. She created the Sisters of the Presentation, who created St. Bernard's High School.
St. Bernard's Campus Ministry program offers monthly service projects in which the high school students participate. Students donate health care products for cancer patients, collect food for local food banks, and write letters to senior citizens. Saints Against Hunger is a yearly program that is student-organized. In 2019 for Saints Against Hunger, students and teachers pack 35,000 meals with the United Way, for local families who are food insecure. St. Bernard's packed the United Way's 1 millionth meal that day.
St. Bernard's has twice-monthly dress-down days where the students raise money for local families. In 2019, they collected $500 for local families who lost their apartments to a fire, $300 for an organization who brought a Holocaust speaker to the school, and more.

2019-20 Transition

Beginning in the summer of 2019 St. Bernard's began the task of transitioning from a Diocesan school to an independent private Catholic High School. The Transition Team has worked closely with the Diocese and the local Parish to review and discuss the best organizational model for the 2020–2021 academic year, and beyond.  They have also received advice and counsel from other schools across the country which have successfully transitioned away from a centralized Diocesan model.
The most viable options considered were either to: operate as a parochial school under the umbrella of St. Bernard Parish or become an independent private religious high school, with local control handed over to an independent Board of Trustees.
After much thoughtful consideration and discussion, the Diocese and the transition team agreed that the most viable path forward is for St. Bernard's to become an independent Catholic religious high school.

Board of Trustees Goals 2020-23

A new Board of Trustees was established in fall 2019. The Board has set three important goals: fundraising, to increase student enrollment, and to make St. Bernard's an affordable option for families in central Massachusetts and southern NH.
Donors have committed $1.2 Million towards a $2.5 million "All In: Campaign for St. Bernard's High School."
The enrollment goal is to increase enrollment from 105 to 200 students by 2022. At that point, the school will have an operating surplus. The Admissions staff and the Marketing Committee are working hard to reach these goals.
The Board has reduced annual tuition from $9,750 to $7,950 for 2020-21 and created new scholarships. The scholarships include up to four full-tuition, four-year scholarships available for new and transfer students.

Athletic Achievements

Founded in 1920 as a commercial high school for young women, eight students were housed in the basement of the St. Bernard's Girls School on Middle Street in Fitchburg behind St. Bernard's Church. The need for a Catholic high school in Fitchburg was recognized by Bishop Beaven and plans to build one materialized during the pastorate of Rev. James J. Donnelly.  The first mission in the United States for the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary was to begin this school.
In the spring of 1925 Father Donnelly purchased the Page Estate on the corner of Summer and Harvard Streets.  This house became a convent for the Sisters. Construction of the building on Harvard Street which would become St. Bernard's High School began in July 1926. On September 8, 1926 in temporary quarters at the Girls’ School, fifty-four boys and girls began an extended curriculum including Classical Course.
The new high school opened its doors to students on September 4, 1927.  Eight Sisters were assigned to instruct them. A newspaper account of the event stated, “…the new school will occupy a prominent part in the education of the boys and girls of the city in the future.”   The school would go on to grow quickly in its enrollment and the physical expansion of the school would continue over the decades to include an additional wing built in 1964 containing a chapel, library, cafeteria, three science labs, a language lab, administrative offices and nine classrooms.  St. Bernard's Central Catholic High School was and continues to be recognized locally, not only for its academic excellence, but also as a fierce competitor in local sports.
Athletic fields were constructed for the school beginning with the school's football field, known as The Bernardian Bowl  in 1946. A state of the art quarter mile track was added in 1964, identical to the one used in the 1964 Olympics. In 1980 the Activity Center opened its doors just one short year after parents and alumni began a half million dollar fundraising campaign to fund the project. The facility contains a 1,000 seat gymnasium, coach's offices, student athlete locker rooms, and a function hall recently converted to serve as a practice gym.
In recent years the student body of St. Bernard's Central Catholic High School has hailed from twenty-six different cities, two states and seven countries.  As of 2015, 12,000 men and women have graduated. There is a St. Bernard's High School graduate living in nearly every state in the United States and in ten countries around the world.  Graduates are prominent in the Church, business, politics, medical profession and service to the country.

Notable Alumni

98% of St. Bernard's alumni in 2017-19 continued onto college. St. Bernard's alumni have continued on to graduate school, law school, and medical school. St. Bernard's alumni own and run businesses around the country.