History

Serving Families Since 1939

The Church of the Immaculate Conception was founded in 1923. On May 25, 1939, Father Joseph Lapinski broke ground for Immaculate Conception Catholic School (ICS). The building was completed in the fall and the school opened with 224 scholars, occupying six of the nine classrooms. Seven Sisters of St. Francis from Sylvania, Ohio staffed the school and lived in the three rooms at the south end of the original building. Sister Loretto Stalock (pictured above) was the school’s first principal.

The Church of the Immaculate Conception continued to expand, and along with it, the school. By 1949, the school reached an enrollment of slightly over 600. A new home for the Sisters was built in 1949, and their residential area in the school was renovated into classrooms. At this time, there were twelve classrooms with about fifty scholars per class. In 1950, 659 scholars were enrolled. It was evident that an addition to the school was necessary to continue to bring Catholic education to the ever-growing parish population. In the fall of 1953, the construction of the new addition to the school began. The new wing added eight more classrooms, bringing to twenty the total rooms. The faculty increased to 16 Sisters and five lay teachers. That year, enrollment reached 1,123 scholars. The next few years saw enrollment continue to grow, peaking at 1,223 scholars in 1961.

The year 1976 saw the groundbreaking for another addition to the building. The new section included a gym facility, faith formation offices and parish offices. That same year, the structure that was the old church, then a gym, was renovated to become the present school auditorium. The lunchroom also received a new look that year. In 1989, the Sisters vacated the convent, and the parish began leasing the building to ELIM, a residence for single mothers and their children. Two years later in 1991, Extended Day Care began operation in the school building. A licensed Pre-K opened in September of 2004 and was located on the first floor of the school.

Beginning with the 2025-26 school year, Ascension Catholic Academy (ACA) took over management of the ICS Early Childhood Learning Center (ECLC), otherwise known as Pre-K. Later that school year, parish and school leaders agreed to forge a union with St. John Paul II Catholic School (JPII) in Northeast Minneapolis. Starting July 1, 2026, ACA took over management of ICS, which remains a parish school in its existing location in Columbia Heights.