St. Bede Academy- a small Benedictine Catholic school in Peru, IL- broke ground this past Monday on a new building that will house female boarding students beginning with the 2009-2010 academic year. 

Reclaiming its boarding mission, St. Bede reopened its boarding department boarding department with the 2007-2008 school year, with four girls and eight boys living in leased residences. St. Bede boarded boys boarding school from 1892 through 1981 and has been coeducational since 1973.

Rev. Claude Peifer told the school’s public relations office:

“St. Bede Academy is responding to a renewed interest in providing opportunities for boarding students on a small scale, and so we are providing housing on campus for this purpose. We hope that the boarding students will profit by living on campus because they will thus be able to participate more fully in the activities of the academy.”

A second boys dormitory is in the works although no timetable has been set.

The expanded boarding program reaches back into the school’s roots, providing boarding school opportunities to a new generation of students.

Rev. Peifer added:

“We hope that some of our boarding-school alumni who have fond memories of their years at St. Bede will enable their children to profit by the opportunity to enjoy a similar academic and living experience in a 21st-century context.”

Traditional  boarding tuition looks to be a great boarding school bargain with  seven day tuition, room, and board St. Bede totaling $23,000 annually.

Read the article from The Daily Times of Ottawa.