COO Update

We are happy to share an update on the progress of Peoria Notre Dame encompassing the past six months, including the close of the 2025–2026 school year and the start of the 2026–2027 school year. Each quarter, we share these COO updates to keep our families, alumni, and community stakeholders informed about all that is happening at PND. We are blessed each day with the opportunity to live out our mission: Forming disciples of Jesus Christ in a community of Catholic faith, knowledge, and service.

During one of our quarterly meetings with the priests, we identified a desire to hear more from our alumni on their faith and academic experiences at PND. What elements affected them the most out in the “real world”? If you are an alumni of PND or one of its predecessor schools, please fill out this anonymous survey and encourage fellow alumni to complete it as well!

Consultative Board/Governance

Our next board meeting is scheduled for October 6th. I want to thank all of our members for all of their hard work and support to move PND forward. Below is a current list of our board members.

Dr. Jerry Sanderson – Superintendent, Office of Catholic Schools

Dr. Susie Cicciarelli – Associate Superintendent, Office of Catholic Schools

Msgr. Gray – Pastor, Sacred Heart Parish, Peoria

Father Henehan – Pastor, St. Jude Parish

Father Spannagel – Pastor, St. Philomena Parish

Steve Knecht – Chair of Board, Finance

Kris Coulter – Vice Chair of Board, Advancement

Dr. Noreen Dillon – Secretary of Board, Academics

Garry Finch – Academics

Brian Winschel – Enrollment

Brian Flaherty – Facilities and Finance

Kevin Shields – Governance

Mitch Gilfillan – Governance

Grant McInnis – PND Chief Operating Officer

Jacqueline Kelly – PND Principal

Academics

We had one of our most successful years of AP testing to date, thanks to the hard work of our students and the dedication and preparation of our faculty! Our AP stats for the 2026 spring testing administration are as follows:

85% of PND students received a score of 3 or higher on one or more AP exams.
AP Capstone Diplomas: 12
AP Scholars: 19
AP Scholars with Distinction: 13
AP Scholars with Honor: 20

Advancement

The annual Blue and Green Gala: PND Goes for Gold in March was a huge success. Overall, we raised a total of $250,000! We are thrilled to have met our Fund-A-Need goal of $150,000 for a replacement of the main floor gym bleachers.
The PND Golf Classic was held on September 9. This year's outing was once again sold out. Thank you to all who registered.
More than a thousand people gathered for our annual ShamRock event, making it another wonderful celebration of the PND community. It was especially great to have so many of our partner parish priests join us and share in the fun.
We have several exciting PND events coming up, and we would love to see our families, alumni, parish communities, and friends join us. Please see the Advancement Events flyer below for more details and upcoming event information.

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Catholic Identity

We would be remiss not to mention the daily offerings PND has to broaden students’ faith: theology courses, daily Mass, Confessions and all-day adoration twice a week, and All School Masses once a month. Other highlights include:

3 students received Confirmation in February.
2 students became Catholic at Easter - 1 conversion story has been featured on the Katie McGrady Show and in the Diocese of Peoria ADA video.
The start of this school year has seen an average of 30 students attending daily Mass in our chapel.
We are excited to take students and families to the Beatification of Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen on September 24th.
“Respect” is the virtue of the school year, and each week, a different challenge is issued to students to display respect to God, themselves, and to those around them.

Enrollment

At the end of the 25-26 school year, PND had 505 total students. After welcoming 135 freshmen and 12 transfer students, our total current enrollment is 510. This is four years of growth!

Facilities

The art department received a generous donation from a PND donor and purchased new digital SL cameras for our digital photography classes.
There is a new ice machine in the kitchen.
During the summer, our crew was hard at work updating landscaping, replacing doors, fixing drainage on campus, and more.

Finance

We continually emphasize the importance of focusing on making Catholic education accessible to all families, and we have granted more than $1 million in financial assistance for the 26-27 school year.

Student Life

We went entirely phone-free for the 2026-2027 school year and have already seen huge benefits to student life because of this initiative. We released a newsletter all about being phone-free, which you can read here.
We started the school year with our first Student Leadership Summit, inviting student leaders from All School Council, Campus Ministry, and Student Ambassadors on retreat to grow in their leadership skills and faith.
Spring sports were a success:

Girls soccer went 23-1-2, were conference champions, and competed in the sectional championship
Softball went the furthest they have since 2014, and competed in the sectional
Baseball finished 5th in the Big 12 under Coach Zimmerman’s first season as head coach
Girls track was represented at STATE by Kate Fitzjarrald, Eileen Hamilton, and Maya Zopel
Boys track was represented at STATE by Freddie Couri, Dax Duffy, Adam Ehrhart, Luke Fady, Augie Crank, Charlie Rickey, Julian Sturm, John Baker, and Max Kirby
Boys Tennis each recorded a win at sectionals but fell just short of qualifying for the state tournament

Kamryn Gardiner, a freshman, was named an All-American for swimming in the 100 Butterfly.
The Drama Club put on an amazing production of Bye Bye Birdie in the spring.

As we live out our mission during this 2026-2027 school year, please keep the Peoria Notre Dame community in your prayers. We are grateful for your partnership as we continue forming disciples of Jesus Christ.

God bless,