Somerset Holy Trinity has a special reason to celebrate Catholic Schools Week.
The Perry County school recently broke ground on an addition to its building that will accommodate enrollment increases.
The new addition is expected to be completed this summer ahead of the start of the 2025-26 school year.
Middle school classrooms will be located on the upper level and the early childhood center on the lower level for 3- and 4-year-olds and for kindergarten.
At a moment in time when some private schools in less populated areas are struggling, Holy Trinity School is actually adding classrooms for elementary and middle school students and an early childhood center as part of a preschool expansion.
“This is important for the Catholic community down here to have this school,” Principal Bill Noll said. “Our enrollment is up. We’ve been on a steady climb of about nine percent a year for the last nine years, and we’ve got waiting lists now in some of our classes.”
The school attracts Catholic students from Holy Trinity and Somerset St. Joseph parishes, New Lexington St. Rose of Lima and Junction City St. Patrick parishes that make up the Perry County Consortium, and non-Catholics from the surrounding area. Total enrollment stands at 191 students during the current academic year.
The preschool has experienced the largest growth. Holy Trinity offers two-, three-, four- or five-day options, latchkey, and before and after-school programs. Thirty-six students are currently enrolled in preschool and that number eventually could climb to 60 after the new construction is completed.
“We’re one of the few schools here that has latchkey before and after school,” Noll said. “We open at 6:15 (a.m.) and close at 5:30 (p.m.). We have families that have no way to work if their kids are not latchkey. It’s been phenomenal for them and it’s affordable.
“It has brought us extra students who normally wouldn’t have come to us, but they come to latchkey, they come to preschool and then they stay for kindergarten.”
Holy Trinity draws students from five counties in 12 school districts. New Lexington City Schools, where St. Rose and St. Patrick parishes are located, provides busing for students to Holy Trinity.
Holy Trinity’s reputation for preparing students for high school and beyond is well known in the community. A majority of Holy Trinity graduates go on to public high school, and some attend Zanesville Bishop Rosecrans, Lancaster Fisher Catholic or Newark Catholic high schools.
“Our kids do well,” Noll said. “We build the whole citizen.”
Noll said Holy Trinity graduates provide 56 percent of the valedictorians or salutatorians at the local public school despite making up only four percent of the student population.
“And if you look at our people here in the community, the leaders are from our school — judge, county prosecutor, dentists, doctors, pharmacist, lawyers,” Noll said.
Teaching the Catholic faith is also an integral part of the school. Regular weekly Masses are celebrated by Father Andre-Joseph LaCasse, pastor of the Somerset parishes, and Father Emmanuel Adu Addai, pastor of the Perry County Consortium.
The Somerset Catholic school has a legacy of educating students that spans generations. For many years, the school was staffed by the founding order, the Dominican Sisters of St. Mary of the Springs (now the Dominican Sisters of Peace). One member of the order, Sister Nancy Ames, remains as vice principal.
A recently retired Holy Trinity teacher was involved in Catholic education for 47 years, and many of the current teachers have worked at the school for 15 years or longer.
“And as far as families go, the tradition continues on,” Noll said. “We have two families that both have 12 grandkids.”
Fundraising is continuing for the project. So far, $1.1 million has been raised.
“Being here in Appalachia, we don’t have a lot of money,” Noll said. “But the community has come together in a big way, including the local banks and local businesses.
“A lot of alumni have helped out. But we’re not there yet. We’ve only got half the money raised, but I believe it will come.”