Our Lady Academy is a private

Private school

Private schools, also known as independent schools or nonstate schools, are not administered by local, state or national governments; thus, they retain the right to select their students and are funded in whole or in part by charging their students' tuition, rather than relying on mandatory...

, Roman Catholic, all-girls high school

High school

High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

 in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

Bay Saint Louis is a city located in Hancock County, Mississippi. It is part of the Gulfport–Biloxi, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 8,209. It is the county seat of Hancock County...

. It is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Biloxi

Roman Catholic Diocese of Biloxi

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Biloxi encompasses 17 counties in south Mississippi. It was erected on March 1, 1977, when it was split from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jackson...

. It is the only all-female Catholic school in Mississippi

Mississippi

Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...

.

Background

Our Lady Academy was established in 1971 by the Sisters of Mercy

Sisters of Mercy

The Religious Order of the Sisters of Mercy is an order of Catholic women founded by Catherine McAuley in Dublin, Ireland, in 1831. , the order has about 10,000 members worldwide, organized into a number of independent congregations....

 at the same location as a previous all-girls high school, St. Joseph Academy, which operated from 1855 to 1967. St. Joseph Academy closed after it was severely damaged by Hurricane Betsy

Hurricane Betsy

Hurricane Betsy was a Category 4 hurricane of the 1965 Atlantic hurricane season which caused enormous damage in the Bahamas, Florida, and Louisiana. Betsy made its most intense landfall near the mouth of the Mississippi River, causing significant flooding of the waters of Lake Pontchartrain into...

 in 1965. There was talk of reopening St. Joseph Academy until Hurricane Camille

Hurricane Camille

Hurricane Camille was the third and strongest tropical cyclone and second hurricane during the 1969 Atlantic hurricane season. The second of three catastrophic Category 5 hurricanes to make landfall in the United States during the 20th century , which it did near the mouth of the Mississippi River...

 hit in 1969.

Our Lady Academy is an exceptional school that excels in education, standardized test scores, and athletics. The relatively small campus, consisting of only a few buildings and a gym is located on the beach of Bay St. Louis. OLA's mascot is the Crescent and the teams are known as "The Crescents." The Our Lady Academy soccer team has won 7 state titles in recent years for the 1A/2A/3A division. The volleyball team has many state titles to their name as well.

Our Lady Academy was severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...

. Classes resumed two months after the storm, sharing resources with nearby all-boys Saint Stanislaus College

Saint Stanislaus College

St. Stanislaus College is an all-male Roman Catholic boarding school in Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi. It is owned and operated by the Brothers of the Sacred Heart order....

. The motto for the two schools after Hurricane Katrina was "Two Schools, One Spirit."