Holy Cross School (New Orleans)

Roman Catholic school in Louisiana, U. S.

Holy Cross School is a Catholic school serving grades pre K through 12 in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was founded in 1849 by the Congregation of Holy Cross. Holy Cross School was originally named St. Isidore's College and was a boarding and day school. Holy Cross School is located in the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

In 1849 the Brothers, Priests and Sisters of Holy Cross arrived in New Orleans after they had established the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, and took over an orphanage for the boys and girls who survived a plague. The orphanage, along with the first Ursuline School for Girls (the oldest Catholic School in America), was destroyed to make room for the 1923 Industrial Canal, which experienced levee failures that flooded large parts of New Orleans twice, with Hurricane Betsy in 1965 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The school administration decided for the school to become PK 12.

With Hurricane Katrina, the campus was flooded with waters from the levee failures on the Industrial Canal and levees "over topped" by storm surge along the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO), which destroyed the area in August 2005. The school relocated to the Gentilly/7th Ward neighborhood of New Orleans at 5500 Paris Avenue, the campuses of the former St. Francis Cabrini Parish and Redeemer Seton High School. The new location of Holy Cross High School includes a high school, middle school, preschool, elementary school, athletic facilities, and an administration building. The Advisory Committee of the Laura Bush Foundation for America's Libraries chose Holy Cross to receive a $50,000 grant to purchase books for the school's library. First Lady Laura Bush visited Holy Cross on Thursday, April 19, 2007, to present the 14 grantees in Mississippi and Louisiana, including Holy Cross, with the donation. The former campus in the Lower Ninth Ward sits abandoned and plans for its renovation have not come to fruition.

Holy Cross football vs. Jesuit football is one of the oldest continuous high school rivalry in Louisiana. The first game was played in 1922 (which Jesuit won 52–0). The two teams have played every year since, including twice in 1963 (once in regular season and again for the state crown, which Holy Cross won). The Tigers have also had a long rivalry with Chalmette High School, owing to Holy Cross' former location in the Lower 9th Ward and its large student population from neighboring St. Bernard Parish. Chalmette and Holy Cross were rivals in the New Orleans Catholic League from 1968 through 1988.

In March 2014, Holy Cross School announced that they will open a primary school and become a Pre K through 12 school. Holy Cross is the only all boys Catholic school in the Greater New Orleans area to offer a comprehensive Pre K through 12th grade education. Holy Cross Primary School opened to all grades (Pre K through 4) in the fall of 2015.