A Catholic all boys high school in West Haven will be admitting girls as students for the first time in its history. Notre Dame High School will begin admitting them starting in 2025.
“There was a little bit of a shock factor and that’s okay. We’ve been an all-boys school for a long time.”
It was surprising news for David Garamella’s sons at Notre Dame High School when they found out young women will soon be among their classmates. Garamella, a graduate of the high school and the chair of the school’s board of directors says it’s the right move.
“This kind of move to co-education allows us to share our mission for what we’ve done for those 78 years with everybody in the community,” he said.
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School officials announcing the news Wednesday saying demographic changes in Connecticut were a key reason for the change.
“We thought this was a good time to start thinking about the future of Notre Dame High School and we felt it was the right time to consider expanding our mission,” Kathy Wielk, executive vice president at Notre Dame High School, said.
Wielk says the campus recently got an $11 million renovation with new facilities for new students and more changes are coming.
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“We do know over the next two to three years, we will look to renovate two bathrooms for the young women as well as taking a look at locker room renovations,” she said.
Some in the community say it’s a good idea to have both young men and women interact in a school environment.
“I think we can learn from each other that way and be more caring towards each other in that way,” Denny Matias of West Haven said.
Garamella says he understand there will be an adjustment period but says Notre Dame will still keep its identity.
Those will always be with us and those are all Notre Dame traditions. Moving forward new traditions will be made on top of that,” he said.
The school says it expects the school to become fully co-ed by 2028 when the first class of girls will be seniors.
