History of St. Frances Cabrini School

St. Frances Cabrini School was established on September 8, 1948, to provide a Catholic education for the children of St. Frances Cabrini Parish in grades 1-6. The newly-created parish and church of 1947 was in response to the increased Catholic population in Alexandria during the post-World War II times. The Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word were asked to operate the school by Bishop Charles P. Greco. The Sisters accepted this mission so that the orphan children they cared for next door could be educated in a parochial school. St. Frances Cabrini School opened in temporary army surplus barracks with 220 pupils under their first principal, Sr. M. Florentine McGarry. In 1953, the new brick school was completed, and grades 7 & 8 were added. By 1972, when the parish celebrated it Silver Jubilee, the school had grown to 560 students. The 1970’s saw a decrease in the number of Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word who staffed the school. More lay teachers were employed, who consistently continued the high quality of education offered at Cabrini. It was during this time that a School Advisory Board was established. In 1981, a beautiful new parish church was dedicated, making more room in the old church for school growth and expansion. As the 1990’s dawned, Cabrini’s student population began a gradual decrease, even though the quality of education continued to grow, with new technology being added to classrooms and the curriculum each year. With 2015, enrollment began to increase, so much so that in 2018, the new Incarnate Word Early Childhood Wing was built to house 6 new classrooms for PreK and Kindergarten. Today, St. Frances Cabrini School’s population has reached 300 students in grades Pre-K3 to 8, with a new curriculum, and a dedicated staff of religious and lay teachers who continue to carry out the mission of our school in the Incarnational spirit of the first Sisters who established it more than 75 years ago.

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