St. Charles Borromeo Catholic School is a parish PreK-8 school in the West End of Tacoma, on South 12th Street. The parish was founded in 1956 by Father Edward F. McCallion, and the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia have been involved in the school since its early years.
In the Pierce County Catholic elementary landscape, St. Charles is one of the larger parish K-8s, with about 556 students and a 14:1 student-teacher ratio. Peer K-8s include St. Patrick School (Tacoma North End), Holy Cross Academy, Visitation School, and St. Frances Cabrini — all under the Archdiocese of Seattle. For families weighing private-school choice in Pierce County, the secular alternatives at the elementary level are Annie Wright Schools (the Tacoma equivalent of Lakeside, with a separate lower school) and Charles Wright Academy (K-12 secular independent).
In-parish tuition runs around $5,900 for K-8, well below the secular-independent range. The school offers four interscholastic sports — basketball, cross country, track and field, and volleyball. The parish is part of the Archdiocese of Seattle and was placed in a parish family with St. Leo the Great in 2024 as part of the Archdiocese's Partners in the Gospel reorganization. In October 2021, the parish office was damaged in an arson fire; school operations continued uninterrupted.
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