Bishop Dunne Catholic School

Bishop Dunne Catholic School is a private Middle/High college prep school located in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas, Texas (USA). It is currently the only 6-12 school within the city of Dallas to hold an exemplary accreditation rating from the Southern Association of Colleges and School (SACS).

History and information

Bishop Dunne Catholic School was originally founded as Our Lady of Victory Academy in 1901. The Sisters of St. Mary of Namur were invited to come to Dallas by then Bishop Joseph Dunne and opened the original school next to Blessed Sacrament Catholic church, in what was then the suburb of Oak Cliff. In 1962 the sisters moved the school to its current 22-acre location on Rugged Drive in Oak Cliff. With the move came the addition of boys and then the name change to Bishop Dunne to honor the Bishop who had done so much for the city.

The new school building on Rugged Drive was designed to teach both high school boys and girls from grades 9 through 12. Initially the building took advantage of its symmetrical design to segregate the boys on the north side of the campus, to be taught by the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, while the girls were taught on the south side of the campus by the Sisters of St. Mary of Namur. The male and female students only intermingled during lunch hours, recess and extracurricular activities. However, soon classes were intermixed with both boys and girls in the same classroom by the late 1960s. During the early 1970s, the Oak Cliff community benefited from the school's outstanding drama department, which put on several large-scale musicals featuring students, faculty, parents and the award-winning school band, including "Bye Bye Birdie" and "The Sound of Music", the latter generating a photo feature article in "The Dallas Morning News" arts section.

By 1973 the school added the 8th grade from the nearby St. Elizabeth Elementary School on Hampton Road, thus teaching grades 8 through 12 during the final phases of the baby boom. In the late 1970s, the Brothers of the Sacred Heart left the school. During the 1980s, the school would add additional grades as the baby boom ended, along with the luxury of a fully air-conditioned campus.

Bishop Dunne Catholic School is a part of the Diocese of Dallas. The school offers both Middle School and High School, serving grades 6-12. Entrance is competitive and the enrollment is typically at full capacity which is about 700. Athletically it is a 6-A (large/co-ed) Private School and is in the same district as sister school Bishop Lynch, Nolan Catholic, TCA, and newly added John Paul II. The school colors are red and blue. Its mascot is the Falcon. It has bred wonderful athletes.

External links

* [http://www.bdhs.org/ Bishop Dunne Catholic School]