Foundation of JB School -- 1954

Julie Billiart School was founded in 1954 by the Sisters of Notre Dame. Readiness for the first classes to be held in the Music House, a large home existing on the property of Notre Dame Academy of Cleveland, Ohio, took place during the summer months. On September 8, the first class began with 16 junior high students consisting of 11 boys and 5 girls.

With these changes came more offerings of extracurricular activities and special events. They included school projects, field trips, cultural activites, and assemblies of various kinds which required a greater percentage of parent involvement.

Volunteer parents planned and supervised a variety of fund raising events to meet the growing financial needs of the school. These consisted of, among others, the annual auction, Monte Carlo night, dinner dances, reverse raffles, Christmas boutique, night-at-the-races and phon-a-thon. The new gym provided the space needed to handle these events.

At that time Julie Billiart School was the first of its kind,and gradually outgrew its original space. Consequently, on January 16, 1958 it moved to its permanent location, the Arter Mansion, located on Clubside Road in Lyndhurst, Ohio and officially opened its doors to students on January 27 of that year. Soon afterward the attached three-car garage was converted into a classroom and the beautiful bowling green was cleared and replaced with blacktop for creating a basketball court. Fundraisers helped to defray the cost of making needed renovations for changing a home into a school.

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