Notre Dame Prep carves its niche

David Gonsalves came to Scottsdale in 2001 with a mission: Design the East Valley’s first new Catholic high school in 40 years.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix provided a building and a name — Notre Dame Preparatory High School. It was up to principal Gonsalves and the community to do the rest.

Since then, the school has had a series of accomplishments: A student body that has almost quadrupled since opening in 2002. State sports championships in golf, basketball, tennis and hockey. Multiple National Merit Scholarship finalists. Millions of dollars in donations, including a recent $1 million anonymous gift.

And all this while requiring 28 credits from graduating seniors — eight more than the state man- dates — and 120 hours of community service.

But despite the academics and accolades, students and faculty say that’s all secondary.

“Our primary job is to teach reverence, respect and responsibility,” Gonsalves said. “The other things will take care of themselves.”

The need for a Catholic high school in Scottsdale has been around for a while, said MaryBeth Mueller, superintendent for the Diocese of Phoenix Catholic Schools.

“North Scottsdale and north Phoenix is exploding,” Mueller said. “People were screaming that we needed another school there.”

Those requests were supported by a population growth study the diocese completed in 1989, which looked at where new developments were going.

About a fourth of new residents were expected to be Catholic, although that’s not the only indication of who would go to the school. And in fact, 27 percent of Notre Dame’s students aren’t Catholic.

Plans for a high school in the area — which was to be called St. Jude’s Regional School— 18 years ago, never came to fruition, Mueller said.

So when a private school, Tesseract, offered its old campus at 9701 E. Bell Road for sale in 2001, it was time to act. The diocese purchased the school to turn it into Notre Dame.

Creating the school has been a community effort, Gonsalves said, even to the point of holding an ice cream social to let parents of incoming students vote on which skirt they wanted for the girls’ school uniforms.

But one thing Gonsalves wouldn’t compromise on was the academics.

Notre Dame has an eightperiod day, which allows students time to take electives in addition to four years of math, science, social studies, English and theology.

Gonsalves admits part of that was from necessity.

“If you’re starting a prep high school, why would you send your kid to Notre Dame instead of an existing prep high school?” Gonsalves said. “We had to be different.”

While students sometimes complain, they accept the workload.

“There are times when you have three hours of homework after (sports) practice, and you’re like, ‘Oh, why?’ ” said senior Michelle Harris. “But you get through it and you’re OK.”

Notre Dame has several ways of reinforcing priorities.

For instance, sports practices start more than an hour after the school’s 2:30 p.m. release time so students have time to get any help they need from teachers beforehand.

“God comes first, and then family, and then academics, and then sports,” Harris added.

Some families knew they wanted to send their children to a Catholic school and picked Notre Dame for its location.

That was the case for Scottsdale resident Aimee Smith, whose three children have attended Catholic schools since kindergarten.

“When I heard they were opening this school, I was like, ‘Woo-hoo!’” said Smith, whose oldest child currently attends the school.

While Smith said area public schools did a good job, the religious aspect and the familiarity of Catholic schools, which Smith attended as a child, were important.

“Of all the problems the church has had in the past few years, the schools have always been strong,” Smith said.

Others were impressed by the academic program and considered the religious focus a bonus. Others moved into the area specifically to go to the school.

Senior Joe Anglim was living in Queen Creek and ready to go to Seton Catholic High School in Chandler in 2003.

But then he and his father, Pat Anglim, had a chance meeting with the Notre Dame basketball coach at a middle school tournament. Not only did the school want Joe for the team, it turned out they wanted Pat, then a theology teacher at St. Timothy’s Catholic Academy in Mesa, as a teacher. The Anglims were so impressed with the school that they sold the citrus farm they had lived on for 20 years and moved to north Scottsdale.

Now, Joe Anglim said he’s excited to be one of the students creating the traditions at Notre Dame — including being on the team that won the school’s first state basketball championship.

“I guess God has his little plans,” he said with a smile.