As the school year commences, Columbus Immaculate Conception (IC) School will celebrate its 100th anniversary. With classes now ranging from preschool to eighth grade, the school, in the north side Clintonville neighborhood, began as two small classrooms in a residence purchased in 1922. 

Immaculate Conception Church, still in its infancy, had just begun celebrating Masses in a chapel with room for only about 50 families. The residence containing the classrooms was acquired to serve as both a convent for a group of Franciscan nuns as well as a school for IC’s first students, whom the nuns would teach. 

Under the leadership of Msgr. John J. Fagan, who was both pastor of the church and principal of the school until his death in 1960, more and more students enrolled, and within a few years, the construction of a new building was underway. It was the first of many new builds and renovations for the IC community, due to its increasing growth.

Charlene Pardi,  who attended IC school for first through sixth grades in the late 1930s, recalled being disappointed when her second-grade class wasn’t able to receive its First Holy Communion in the new church because it wasn’t ready in time. 

“I was so sad,” she said. “The old church was just a room in a hallway.” 

The new church, still in use today, was complete by the time the Clark family started in 1954 at IC school, where all 11 children attended. 

“Since 1954, IC has never had a school year without one of my parents’ descendants in attendance,” said Mary Margaret Clark Schultheis, who attended IC in the late 1950s and early ’60s. At that time, all of the classes were still taught by the Franciscan nuns, whom Schultheis remembers for the orderliness they brought to the school. “We all had to stand up and say ‘good morning’ whenever another adult came into the classroom,” she said.

Slowly, beginning in the early 1970s, the nuns were replaced by laity as IC’s teachers, as the school strove to keep up with the changing times. Cindy Butchko, IC’s current third-grade teacher, began at the school in 1980 as a student teacher when technology was far less common in the classroom. 

“I’d say one of the biggest changes I’ve seen (here over the years) is keeping up with the changing technology,” she said. As a school that prides itself on effectively preparing students for high school, one of IC’s priorities is technology fluency for its students. “(It benefits them to) know how to use it,” Butchko said, “because it’s a part of our world.”

Father Matthew Hoover, pastor at Columbus Immaculate Conception Church, prays with students in a classroom. Photo courtesy Immaculate Conception School

Deacon Chris Campbell, principal at Columbus Bishop Watterson High School as well as IC parish’s permanent deacon, said IC school’s “facilities, technology and curriculum have kept up with the times.” Despite being a century old now, “(the school) is not stuck in the past,” Campbell said. 

Because of its age, IC school boasts a wealth of large families with multiple generations all attending there. Terry Irwin Kelleher, who graduated eighth grade at IC in 1968 and is still an active parishioner there, said the IC community has been an integral part of her family since the 1930s when her mother attended school there. 

“(In) 2014, … we rejoiced at my grandson’s baptism at Immaculate Conception at the same baptismal font where his father, aunt, uncle, grandmother, great-aunts and great-uncle were all baptized! The circle of life was not lost on my mother (Marian Sauter), 89 years of age, beaming with joy at her new great-grandson in a most special, holy place, holding so many memories.”

Mary Ann Ireton, a former teacher at IC, said, “IC is a very unique community in that … children – when they become adults – return to Clintonville, (and) children of former students attend IC.” 

Mia Theado is another one of these former IC students whose three sons have all attended school there themselves. “(It’s) a wonderful place to grow up as well as raise your children,” she said. “I have had the privilege of experiencing both. 

“IC has a way of bringing together families in the community who share the same goals of providing their children with a well-rounded, faith-based education. … I have celebrated multiple sacraments there of my own as well as for my sons.” 

Colleen Kent, who became IC’s principal 11 years ago after serving as assistant principal at Worthington St. Michael School, said that upon becoming part of the IC community, the connectedness of the families to one another – many of whom have had multiple generations attend there – is what stood out most to her. 

“I was an outsider coming into the community and have truly felt the love and the draw that people have toward this place,” she said. “(I’ve met so many) parents who pick up each other’s kids.”

Bishop Earl Fernandes visits a classroom at Columbus Immaculate Conception School.  

One of the changes Kent has made in her time at IC has been starting a preschool there, which offers classes for children ages 3 through 5. Because the preschool serves as a feeder school to the older grades at IC, it’s helped enrollment numbers. 

Another factor in increasing IC’s student body has been the recent closure of several other Columbus Catholic schools, specifically Columbus St. Anthony. Kent said she’s happy to welcome more students but is running out of room. 

“(We have) plans currently written up for the next renovation,” she said. “We’re squeezing people into small spaces here. Our new counselor’s office is actually a closet that we made look nice,” she said, laughing. 

IC’s last renovation was in 2003 for $4 million and included adding classrooms and updating air conditioning. Kent, whom Butchko said “works really hard and lives the faith,” is optimistic about continuing to build onto the school for future generations. 

In regard to the support and loyalty of families eager to help the school prosper, Kent said, “That is the beauty of (this) environment, and I just love it. I can’t get enough of it.”