Mount Saint Charles Academy

Mount Saint Charles Academy is a private Catholic junior/senior high school located in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence. HistoryIn the late 1800s, a significant number of French Canadians migrated to the mill town of Woonsocket, RI. One local clergyman, Monsignor Charles Dauray, sought to preserve the French language and Catholic faith in the region through education. He invited the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, a French Catholic congregation, to staff a school in the city. Mount St. Charles Academy opened on September 14, 1924 to a number of boarders and commuting students. Br. Josephus, SC served as the first principal.Three years after the completion of the school, Br. Josephus oversaw the construction of a gymnasium, the largest in New England at the time. Since that early development, each successive principal has attempted to improve the school and its extra-curricular programs through discrete construction and academic projects. The early curriculum included a wide variety of courses emphasizing academic and athletic training. In 1963, the Br. Adelard Ice Hockey Arena, named after the "Father of Schoolboy Hockey" and the first built to serve a particular school, was added to the campus.By the 1970s, with the closing of the all-girls' high school in the city and a diminished interest in boarding schools, the Academy was modernized into a Grades 7–12, co-educational, day school. By 2015, Mount Saint Charles had expanded and incorporated the 6th grade to compete with schools in the area. Desiring to better serve the individual needs of each student, the Academy also established its Teacher Counselor Program, intended to ensure that each student had an adult advocate to monitor his/her progress and serve as an intermediary between the home and school.