On Saturday, November 9, Holy Family School in Holly Springs, MS, welcomed students, alumni, parents, teachers, former staff and other members of the community to its 75th anniversary celebration. Bishop Joseph Kopacz of Jackson was the main celebrant at a Mass that kicked off the day’s events; he is pictured above with SCJ Frs. Guy Blair, David Szatkowski, Vien Nguyen and Jack Kurps.
Holy Family School opened in 1948 as “St. Mary School” (the 75th celebration was delayed by a year due to construction). It was a time when children in the South were segregated; St. Mary’s was established to serve the needs of Black children in the area. In that first year there was a just a single teacher – recruited by Fr. Paul Frichtl, SCJ – to teach 55 children in eight grades in one classroom. The next year, four School Sisters of St. Francis joined him.
Enrollment grew to 100; after cotton-picking season it jumped to 154. None of these early students were Catholic, and their responsibilities to the local agricultural economy often came ahead of their education. Social service outreach quickly became a part of the school’s mission.
A high school was added in 1950, with the first class graduating in 1954. Just as with the primary school, students’ first responsibility was to the cotton fields. St. Mary’s had no choice other than to shut down for several weeks in autumn to allow for the harvest.
In 1949, St. Joseph School opened in Holly Springs in a two-story wooden house. Continuing to work within the norms of segregation in Mississippi, Dehonians established the school for white children in the area. It too was staffed by the School Sisters of St. Francis. In 1964 a new school building replaced the old house.
In 1969, St. Mary’s grade school and St. Joseph school in Holly Springs were combined and renamed as CADET, an acronym for “Christian Aided Development Through Extraordinary Training.” The high school program was closed. A child care center for three and four-year-olds was added in 1974.
In 1994, CADET was renamed “Holy Family School” in recognition of its Catholic heritage.
The school’s name has changed several times, but not its mission. Although they no longer take time away from school to work in the cotton fields, many of the students at Holy Family continue to come from families that struggle economically. More than 95% of its students qualify for the federal free lunch program. An Extended Day program provides supervised care before and after school for children of working parents from 6:30 a.m. – 7:45 a.m. and from 3:00 p.m. – 5:45 p.m. Breakfast is available for those who take part.
The school is a ministry of the Dehonians’ Sacred Heart Southern Missions.
