From left, juniors Austin Alschlager, Carly Bonfe, Lilly Bradford and Andrew Gansler engage in discussion during English class Sept. 9 at Unity Catholic High School in Burnsville. DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

A three-year process culminated Sept. 5 as Unity High School in Burnsville was officially recognized as a Catholic school, joining 15 other Catholic high schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. The change is reflected in the school’s new name: Unity Catholic High School. 

Archbishop Bernard Hebda signed the document on the feast of the school’s patroness, St. Teresa of Kolkata, Principal Joe Cassady wrote Sept. 8 in an open letter to the families of Unity’s 70 students in grades 9-12.  

“I am proud to be able to say that as of now, all of our students attend Unity Catholic High School,” Cassady said, also noting that the efforts began well before he became principal July 1. 

Unity Catholic was founded in 2018 by Tom Bengtson, who helped launch Chesterton Academy in 2008, and retired NFL player and former Minnesota Viking Matt Birk, who is now running for lieutenant governor. It is organized around four pillars: academics, virtue, leadership and service.  

The high school is in a former religious education center attached to Mary, Mother of the Church in Burnsville. The building can accommodate up to 200 students, Cassady said. 

The curriculum relates academics to life experiences and needs, including weekly “real world Wednesdays” with hands-on cooking, car maintenance, managing personal budgets and other tasks. The goal is forming graduates in Catholic theology, spirituality and virtue while preparing them to pursue any number of options such as higher education, the military, or immediately entering the workforce, Cassady told The Catholic Spirit. 

Ryan Kracht, a mechanical and project engineer, and his wife, Tracy, saw their 19-year-old twins graduate last year from Unity, and two more of their 10 children are at the school now. As graduates, Catherine is working at Guiding Star Wakota pregnancy resource center in West St. Paul and Clare is a machinist in Burnsville. 

“We’re interested in a solid Catholic education,” Kracht said. “It’s comforting that all the teachers share that and think it’s really important.” The school also is attractive because it doesn’t strive to be an elite step into a four-year degree, but considers the talents and desires of each student, he said. 

“That seemed like real world to my wife and I,” Kracht said. 

Math teacher Erin Breid said she was among the first teachers at Unity, which now has a faculty and staff of 12. Gaining recognition as a Catholic school affirms “everything we were already doing,” Breid said. “It’s great to be able to put that name on it and show people that’s important to us as a school.” 

Now that the school is Unity Catholic, it will invest in a new logo, signage and letterheads, and increase its marketing efforts, Cassady said.  

“I think it will help recruit students,” he said. “We haven’t done a lot of marketing yet in the Twin Cities or even south of the Twin Cities. We wanted to wait to push our name out there.” 

The closest Catholic high schools to Unity are about nine miles north: St. Thomas Academy and Visitation School, both in Mendota Heights, and Academy of Holy Angels in Richfield. Unity is the only Catholic high school in the metro area south of Interstate 494, he said. 

Emily Dahdah, director of the Department of Educational Quality and Excellence in the archdiocese’s Office for the Mission of Catholic Education, said it’s exciting to have another “educational institution that wants to partner with the Church.” 

“As Catholic educators, we are preparing children for the world,” she said, helping to answer the question: “What does it mean to be a spiritual creature in the image and likeness of God?”