Chaminade College Preparatory School (Missouri)

Chaminade College Preparatory School
Chaminade Hall is the main classroom building on the school's campus, and its oldest facility
Address
425 South Lindbergh Boulevard Creve Coeur, Missouri, St. Louis County) 63131 United States
Coordinates	38°38′59″N 90°24′25″W / 38.64972°N 90.40694°W / 38.64972; -90.40694Coordinates: 38°38′59″N 90°24′25″W / 38.64972°N 90.40694°W / 38.64972; -90.40694
Information
Type	Private, All-Boys
Motto	Esto Vir (Be a Man)
Religious affiliation(s)	Roman Catholic
Established	1910
Founder	Society of Mary (Marianists)
President	Rev. Ralph Siefert, S.M.
Principal	Philip Rone
Chaplain	Fr. Oscar Vasquez, S.M.
Grades	6–12
Enrollment	501 (high school) 277 (middle school) (2012)
Average class size	17 students
Student to teacher ratio	9:1
Campus size	55 acres (220,000 m2)
Campus type	Suburban
Color(s)	Cardinal and White
Athletics conference	Metro Catholic Conference
Team name	Red Devils (Unofficial)
Accreditation	Independent Schools Association of the Central States North Central Association of Colleges and Schools
Average ACT scores	27.6
Newspaper	Cardinal and White
Yearbook	The Cardinal
Tuition	$17,564 for day students; $33,091 for resident students (2012-13)
Middle School Principal	Todd Guidry
Admissions Director	Diane Dunning-Gill
Athletic Director	Tom Fernandez
Website	chaminade-stl.org

Chaminade College Preparatory School is an independent Roman Catholic school, of the Marianist Order, for boys in grades six through twelve in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Louis. The school is located in Creve Coeur, in west St. Louis County, Missouri. The school offers 7-day, 5-day, and temporary boarding. Students come from throughout the United States and from countries throughout the world. Canning Hall, the name of the dormitory, accommodates up to eighty residents. The school bears the name of Father William Joseph Chaminade, a priest who lived during the era of the French Revolution and who founded the religious order known as the Society of Mary (Marianists). The school maintains an active relationship with the Society of Mary through governance structures and the employment of lay and religious Marianists and maintaining this charism.

Chaminade was founded by the Society of Mary in 1910, less than one hundred years after the school's namesake, Blessed Father William Joseph Chaminade, had founded the order, and only sixty years after the Marianists had established themselves in the United States. Originally it was a boarding and day school, with most of its students residing in the open dormitories that were located on the third and fourth floors of the main building; the priests and brothers of the Society of Mary resided in rooms on the north and south ends of each floor.

When the school opened in 1910, only one building, which later would be named "Chaminade Hall," existed on campus, besides the original farmhouse that existed when the land was purchased. In 1919, however, the school built a gymnasium north of the school building. The main building, the farmhouse, and the gymnasium, were for many years the only permanent structures on the campus until the 1950s, when the school built new dormitories for students, a new residence building for the members of the Marianist order, and a new chapel.

These buildings were connected to the main building and the gymnasium by a network of underground tunnels that allowed the priests and brothers to move between buildings without going outside. In 1970, the school constructed a new athletic facility named the Athletictron, and the school added the "West Wing" onto the back of Chaminade Hall in 1981. In 2002, the West Wing was expanded again, adding middle school classrooms, a cafeteria, and a new library. In 2011, construction was completed on the new Skip Viragh Center for the Arts. Rev. Ralph A. Siefert has been President of Chaminade since 1987. He is the longest serving President in the school's history. The 1000 seat auditorium in the Skip Viragh Center for the Arts was named in his honor.