Pomona Catholic School celebrated its 125th anniversary this year, but if it weren’t for some courageous students long ago, the school might not have even made it that far.

It was on March 2, 1927, that a fire broke out in the basement of the Holt Avenue school – then known as the Academy of the Holy Names. Most of the 42 students were safely away from the flames, but some of them rose to the occasion and helped save the school building.

“Several girls who were in the building when the blaze was discovered, seized fire extinguishers and attempted to subdue the flames,” reported the Pomona Bulletin the following day. “Not until the fire and smoke threatened to overcome them did they leave the building.”

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Arriving firefighters finished putting down the flames but then discovered Sister Anselma – one of the Sisters of the Holy Names –  in a precarious position at the window of the second-story chapel. She was on the verge of jumping when Fire Chief Jack Shewman ordered a ladder placed on the side of the building.

“A moment later, Sister Anselma had been escorted safely to the ground,” said the article.

School days during those 125 years have rarely had that much excitement. But the campus through the decades has grown, offering a contemporary and Catholic education to more than 6,000 students, giving them the skills and knowledge to succeed in life.

At the same time, the school had undergone numerous changes. It has largely been an institution for girls, though for about a decade it was expanded into a coeducational high school. Today it offers a co-ed school in grades 6 to 8 and an all-girls high school.

“We are proud of what we have done lately becoming an entirely college-bound high school,” explained Sister Julianna Francis Marie Vagnozzi, part of the school’s alumni relations and liturgy program and a 1974 graduate of the school. “Over the last 6 years, we have had 100% of our graduates accepted to the college of their choice.”

And the list of its distinguished alumni is rather extensive, including Debbie Murcasel-Power, a 1988 graduate and congresswomen from Florida in 2017-2021. She’s running for U.S. Senate from that state in next year’s elections.

Marie Porter Royce, class of 1979, served as assistant secretary of state in Washington, D.C., from 2018-2021. One of the school’s few male graduates was the late John Stewart, who performed with the Kingston Trio and later wrote a  No. 1 hit, “Daydream Believer,” for the Monkeys. He graduated in 1958.

The school’s doors first opened in September 1898 after Father P. J. Fisher of St. Joseph Church in Pomona invited sisters of the Order of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary to staff the school. After the 1927 fire, classes had to be moved to the Elks Lodge until the following year when the building still in use today was completed.

In 1948, it became a coeducational school under the direction of the Felician Sisters and was briefly called St. Joseph High School. The school was renamed Pomona Catholic Girls High in 1962 after boys were transferred to what became today’s Damien High School on the old Bonita High School campus in La Verne. In the years since the co-ed middle school opened, it became Pomona Catholic School.

Its enrollment is about 227 with students from as far away as San Bernardino and Whitter. Students and staff are no longer housed at the school as they were in its earlier years.

A walk through the nearly 100-year-old building shows the days of inkwells and chalkboards are long gone. Today, whiteboards, laptops and iPhones have kept students functioning, especially during the distance-learning challenges of the 2020 COVID epidemic.

Operating any parochial or private school, receiving no public education funds, has always been a challenge, and remains so for Pomona Catholic. Tuition for most of the current students is at least partially paid through scholarships raised through donations and fundraising efforts, said Sister Julianna. Years ago, some family members were able to earn part of the tuition by cleaning or doing other tasks at the school.

“So many of our students today are helped by the many scholarships made possible through our donors,” said Mary Ann Sharp, a volunteer alumni coordinator and also a 1974 graduate. “And the new middle school has helped increase student attendance. Today, after the eighth grade, girls have the opportunity to move right up to the high school while most of the boys prepare to go over to Damien.”

In marking its 125th anniversary, Pomona Catholic School held an expansive celebration at the school on Sept. 22, in which Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles, presided. The celebration highlighted the present as well as the school’s past, and how for years it has been so ably supported by alumni and family members.