Loyola Catholic School

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Loyola Catholic School
Loyola

Established
Type of institution	Private
Enrollment	650
Location	Mankato, Minnesota, USA
Colors	Blue and Gold
Affiliations	Catholic
Information	507-388-2994
Website	http://www.mankatoareacatholicschool.org

Aerial photo of the Good Council Campus.

Loyola Catholic School (formerly known as Mankato Area Catholic School), is located in Mankato, Minnesota. The school has two campuses, the Fitzgerald Campus, housing grades four through eight, and the Good Council Campus, which houses grades K-3 and 9-12. The school is also known as MACS, because of its former name, and also by LCS, which is the new official acronym from the new name. Each class will average about 50 people per class.

1 Good Counsel Campus
2 Fitzgerald Campus
3 Activities
4 Name
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Good Counsel Campus

The Good Counsel Campus is located on Good Counsel Hill in Mankato, MN. The hill is located on the eastern side of Mankato, and the water tower on the Hill can be seen from most parts of town. The elementary part of the school is located in a wing of the building, while the high school is occupying the rest of the school part. One part in the back is rented out by Coughlan Companies, a publishing company in Mankato. There are about fifty kids in each class, but the lower grades are usually always higher populated than the higher grades. The curriculum of the school includes four years required of religion and English, three years required of math, social studies, and science. Two years of a foreign language is required (French and Spanish are offered). There are five Advanced Placement (AP) classes offered at LCS. They are AP Calculus, AP Biology, AP Spanish, AP Government, and AP English. All of the AP courses offer the chance to gain college credit. The high school also is a member of the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL). The top sports are football and basketball. The last state tournament appearance for football was 2004 and for basketball was the 2003-2004 season. The basketball team won the state tournament with a record of 32-0. The school has produced one professional athlete. Ben Brielmaier was signed by the Cleveland Browns as an undrafted free agent. Another athlete that has been in the news is Ben's brother Bret, who was a walk-on at the Arizona Wildcat basketball team. Bret has helped the team in large amounts, including a ten point and team leading eight rebounds in the Wildcat's first round game of the 2006 NCAA Tournament. Bret has been called, by Lute Olson, the "best walk-on he's ever coached." ^[1]

[edit] Fitzgerald Campus

The Fitzgerald Campus houses the 4th through 8th graders. The school building was built in 1956 and is new for housing the 4th and 5th graders. This building is the home to the varsity volleyball and basketball teams, while the junior high students play at the high school for these sports. In grades 4-5, the students remain in homerooms, going to all of their classes with their homerooms. In sixth grade, the students have "baserooms", which is a transition period from 5th grade to 7th grade and above. While students will go to classes with their baseroom, they also will have classes with other students from other baserooms. Students in grades seven and eight have schedules that are identical to few other students.

[edit] Activities

As mentioned earlier, MACS has a history for its atletics, but also it has a history for its non-athletic activities. The school has placed high in many Knowledge Bowl events, and the band has received a Superior rating many times, which is the highest rating for a band in Minnesota. The school has also had much success in the activity of Speech. In the 1980s, the school had many champions in many categories, and most recently in 2006 had two medalists at the state speech meet (for more information, visit Minnesota High School Speech.) For more information on the MACS activities, sponsored by the MSHSL, visit the website below. Also, the school produces one three act play in the fall, usually a musical. This year's production is The Christmas Schooner. It will be performed at the Fitzgerald Campus little theater on November 30, December 1, and December 2 at 7:30PM and December 3 at 2:00PM.

[edit] Name

Before the 2005-2006 school year, the school board changed the name from Mankato Area Catholic Schools, which was a district controlling Loyola High School, Fitzgerald Middle School, Holy Rosary Intermediate School, and Notre Dame Elementary, to Mankato Area Catholic School, which combined all of these into one school. In December, 2005, the board changed the name of the school again to Loyola Catholic School, because they wanted to have Catholic in the name of every school, and the high school was most commonly called Loyola, along with other school buildings. Loyola Catholic School will be the official school name starting in 2006, but the school has been implementing the name into school activities and documents since the announcement of the name change.