“Historic Day” for Alumni-Led School

In August this blog reported on an education success story in Montrose, California, where St. Monica Academy — a private, Catholic K-12 school run largely by Thomas Aquinas College alumni — was moving to a new, larger campus, due to the steady growth of its student body. Although the move took place over the summer, and St. Monica’s has been operating on its new campus since the fall, the relocation achieved its true consummation last week when the local bishop visited the campus to offer his blessing.

On April 5, the Most Rev. Joseph V. Brennan, Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles, walked through the campus, surrounded by 10 student acolytes, stopping to bless each classroom, the high school buildings, the athletic field, and the playground with holy water. “I felt the grace of God descend upon the school,” says Headmaster Marguerite (Ford ’79) Grimm, calling the event, “a historic day for St. Monica Academy.”

Founded with just 44 students in 2001, St. Monica’s has seen its enrollment swell to 242 this year. It is a mainstay on the Cardinal Newman Society’s list of “Schools of Excellence,” a ranking of the top Catholic schools across the United States, which also includes several others that are headed by Thomas Aquinas College alumni. 

In addition to Mrs. Grimm, there are 11 other alumni on the St. Monica’s faculty: Mary Kate Zepeda (’89), Darren Bradley (’98), Alexandra Currie (’05), Genevieve Grimm (’05), Paula Grimm (’08), Daniel Selmeczy (’08), Marisela Miranda (’09), Jane Forsyth (’11), Colleen Smith (’11), Thomas Quackenbush (’14), and Thomas Trull (’15). Like the College, St. Monica’s employs a classical curriculum and stresses fidelity to the teaching Church.