ACCREDITATION/CURRICULUM 

by Patricia Anderson

Throughout their existence, St. Genevieve schools were accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) and the North Carolina Department of Instruction (NCDI).  Girls attending St. Genevieve’s academy and grammar school received one of the finest educations available in the Southeast.  A charter member of SACS, St. Genevieve was the first Catholic school in the South to be accredited by the association.

The Sisters of RCE designed the various courses of study for a broad and deep culture, providing careful and exact training through a liberal education under Christian influences.

Until the Academy closed at the end of the 1971 school year, French was taught during eight years of grammar school and was offered for four years of high school.  The high school curriculum also included four years of English with six periods a week, four years of social studies, three years of science, four years of Spanish and four years of Latin.

Advanced placement courses for Academy students were offered in English, French, Spanish and Latin.  Other courses included home economics, art, art appreciation, journalism, music appreciation, speech, dramatics and physical education. One hundred percent of the Academy’s graduates attended college.

Catholic students took four years of religion and all students received instruction in moral guidance for two periods each week.

St. Genevieve maintained the largest Catholic High School library in the Southeast with more than 12,000 volumes.

Both Gibbons Hall and the St. Genevieve Prep earned SACS accreditation in 1960, the first elementary schools in North Carolina accredited by SACS...