Conwell-Egan Catholic High School

Conwell-Egan Catholic High School is a coeducational, Catholic high school in Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

History

Conwell-Egan Catholic High School's history began in 1957 as Bishop Egan High School, a co-institutional school located on Levittown Parkway in Levittown, Pennsylvania. August 1957, the new faculty of Conwell-Egan Catholic was assigned. The principle was, Father Regis Stafford, and the other staff included seven priests, eight sisters, and one layman. The brand-new school opened on September 5, 1957. The attendance was 353 fresh-man, and 254 sophomore students.^[3]

In 1966, because of the burgeoning population in the Lower Bucks County area, Bishop Egan was separated into two schools: Bishop Egan for boys, located in a new facility in Fairless Hills, and Bishop Conwell for girls, located in the original building in Levittown. Twenty-six years later, in 1993, the two schools were merged to form Conwell-Egan Catholic High School.

During the 90s the Archdiocese allowed the students to an open enrollment policy, meaning the students preferring to go to a Catholic school could choice which catholic school in the Archdiocese they pleased.^[4] Conwell-Egan Catholic continues its mission of providing the best possible Catholic education for secondary students in the Lower Bucks County area and beyond.

On January 6, 2012, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced that Conwell-Egan Catholic, along with three other Catholic high schools in the Philadelphia region, would permanently close at the end of the 2011-2012 school year as part of the 2012 Archdiocese of Philadelphia school closings.^[5]

Conwell-Egan Catholic appealed the decision to the Archdiocese, citing the fact that it is the only Catholic high school in Lower Bucks County. Major efforts were put in place to save the school, including the raising of over $3 million. On February 24, nearly seven weeks after the closing announcement, Archibishop Chaput announced that Conwell-Egan and the three other high schools slated to close would remain open. Archbishop Chaput's reasons for keeping the school open were the major fundraising efforts and support from current students, parents, teachers, and alumni.

In 2013, Conwell-Egan launched its iPad Initiative.^[6] Beginning with the Class of 2017, iPads were issued to each student. To support this change, the school's network infrastructure was upgraded.

Since remaining open, the school's enrollment has gradually increased.

[1] On November 15, 2017 students, teachers, staff, and alumni of Conwell-Egan Catholic, were surprised and excited to receive the gift of a 5 million dollar grant. They received the grant from Danaher Lynch Family Foundation. The foundation that donated the money was establish by Tom Lynch and his wife Patty to help support Catholic school education in the surrounding areas. Conwell-Egan Catholic later released that they would be using the donation to fund scholarships, creating a center for student leadership, infrastructure of the school, and also anything they can do to improve the catholic education the provide for their students.^[7]

Academics

Conwell-Egan Catholic High School offers a comprehensive curriculum, with some students opting to take Honors and Advanced Placement (AP) courses. It is the purpose of the academic program at Conwell-Egan Catholic to develop students’ abilities and talents by preparing them for post secondary education. Conwell-Egan Catholics education is opened to all types of religions, but does require each student to attend all theology classes needed to graduate the high school.^[8]

Sports and Extracurricular Activities

Conwell-Egan Catholic High School has 20 athletic teams, and 23 extracurricular activities. 80% of Conwell-Egan participates in at least one athletic sport, or an extracurricular. There are several activities from a football program, to the mathletes club. The school’s colors are royal blue and white, and the mascot is an Eagle.^[8]

Conwell-Egan also has an extracurricular activity called “Spirit Night’ that several students participate in. “Spirit Night is the Most Anticipated Student Event of the Year”. This event brings the entire school against each other in a competition and is almost completely student run. The High School is divided into two teams to make a Blue team and a White team. The students are split by the alphabet leaving the first half of the alphabet to the white team, and the second half of the alphabet to the blue team. Every year a different theme is selected for students to prepare dances for, with mixed music, costumes, and art work. Students start rehearsing and organizing art work, student dances, and sports games in January. Spirit Night is finally pulled together by the end of April when the students present their dances that they have prepared. Around 3,000 people fill the audience over the three nights of Spirit Night cheering for the students as the present their dances. This upcoming year will be Conwell-Egan’s 31st annual Spirit Night tradition.^{[9] [10]} The boys' basketball team won the PIAA Class AA State Championship on March 21, 2015. This was the school's first basketball state title.^[11]

Notable alumni

• Keith Armstrong (born 1963, class of 1982), NFL Atlanta Falcons, special teams coordinator^[12]
• Jim Cawley (born 1969, class of 1987), former Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania^[13]
• Mike Fitzpatrick (born 1963, class of 1981), 4-term U.S. House Representative (PA-8)^[14]
• Larry Marshall (born 1950), defensive back, kick returner and wide receiver for NFL's Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles^[15]
• Joe McEwing (born 1972), former professional baseball player, current Chicago White Sox 3rd base coach
• Leo Rossi (born 1946), actor, star of such films as The Accused, Relentless and Analyze This
• Mark S. Schweiker (born 1953), former Governor of Pennsylvania^[16]
• Steve Slaton (born 1986), All-American football running back, Heisman Trophy finalist, Miami Dolphins running back^[17]
• Thomas G. Waites (born 1955), actor and playwright, star of such films as The Warriors, The Thing and And Justice for All
• Bob Zupcic (born 1966), outfielder who played in MLB for the Boston Red Sox and Chicago White Sox

References

External links

• School's official site
• Private School Review