"Your sons into young men, young men into Christian gentlemen."
Since Christian Brothers School first opened in 1960, it has been housed in the historic McFadden Mansion in New Orleans City Park. Currently, the school has an operating lease with the New Orleans City Park Board through 2040.
The school was opened by the Christian Brothers in response to needs of the Archdiocese of New Orleans and of the Christian Brothers. Since many boys were leaving the Catholic school system for private schools in the late 1950's and early 1960's, Archbishop Joseph Rummel invited the Brothers to open a middle school which would seek to challenge the academically capable middle school boy.
At the same time, the Brothers had two needs. One was to open a middle school which would serve as a feeder to De La Salle High School which the Brothers had opened just a few years earlier. The second was to generate funding for the order. Accordingly, the founding faculty consisted entirely of Christian Brothers. Tuition money typically directed to faculty salaries could be re-directed to the needs of the order.
As the Brothers aged and younger Brothers were not available to replace retiring Brothers, the Brothers hired lay men to work with them. This unintended tradition of an all-male faculty has become a successful feature to the middle school boys program.
Today, the male teachers represent various vocations, ages, hobbies and personalities. Consequently, every student is able to identify with a least one member of the faculty such that the rapport between teacher and student is the hallmark of the school’s reputation. In fact, this rapport between the teachers and students outside of the classroom most influences the learning which takes place inside of the classroom.