St. Patrick High School (Portland, Michigan)

St. Patrick High School is a private, Roman Catholic high school in Portland, Michigan. It is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Grand Rapids.St. Patrick School was established as a grade school in 1906 by the Sisters of St. Joseph. The high school was added in 1951. The school currently teaches preschool through high school in a Catholic environment. It is one of the few preschool-12 schools supported by a single parish. The school has served families from Portland and the surrounding area since 1906, providing them with the opportunity to give their children a quality Catholic education. The school's mission statement is: We Pray. We Learn. We Achieve. The standardized test scores are regularly the highest of all schools in the Ionia County area.HistoryTHE FIRST SCHOOL BUILDING: 1906 The first school in 1906 was two-stories of cement block, 59½ x 42½, with cement block basement and an interior finished with Southern Pine. The newspaper article about the new school noted that it was lighted with electricity. “The rooms are 12½ and 13 feet in height, airy, pleasant and commodious, both upstairs and down and the school altogether has pleasant surroundings. There are plenty of radiators in each room and the heater and boiler is of such capacity that there is no doubt that the building will be properly warmed,” said the column in the Portland Review and Observer. This building was sufficient for the first forty years.NEW SCHOOL ERECTED: 1950's In 1945, when new pastor Father Louis Flohe arrived, he found an overcrowded school. He purchased the rest of the property on the block and replaced the original school with a building that could accommodate more grades. Now students could remain at St. Pat’s through graduation. The new school, which had the largest and best gymnasium in the entire area, opened in 1951. By the end of the 50’s, the classrooms once again were filled to capacity, and there was a waiting list of students who wanted to attend St. Pat’s. Father Flohe initiated another building campaign, to which the people of the parish again responded. The new addition opened in 1961, adding eight classrooms and a lower level cafeteria.