Students, faculty and staff at Julie Billiart School’s Brecksville Campus welcomed Bishop Edward Malesic on Feb. 9 for his first visit to the newest location in the Julie Billiart Network. The Brecksville Campus, which opened in August 2024, is the fourth Julie Billiart School.
The school community gathered in the gym for a short prayer service before the bishop toured the campus. Julie Billiart purchased the former Chippewa School from the Brecksville-Broadview Heights School District and did extensive renovations to the building, which sits on 12 acres.
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The prayer service featured music, a welcome from a student, readings, a short homily, intercessions, a message from the principal and a closing prayer and blessing by the bishop.
“On behalf of the school community of Julie Billiart, I’d like to welcome our bishop and all of you to our school today,” the student said. “While our school is noted for academic excellence, it is rooted in faith. Like St. Julie Billiart, we want to be more like Jesus and follow in his footsteps.”
The theme for the prayer service was “Jesus Calls us to Love,” which the bishop used for his remarks. In the Gospel, Jesus said he is the vine and we are the branches, meaning he is the source of our life. The reading from St. John focused on love, pointing out that “love is of God” and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God, who sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him.
That is the purest example of love, the bishop told the group.
He enjoyed coffee and conversation with some of the families after the prayer service. One woman told the bishop she was grateful for Julie Billiart because she found a community at the school, noting it provides what her child and so many others with different abilities and learning differences need. They form a family, she added.
The Julie Billiart leadership team, including Lannie Davis-Frecker, president and CEO, Alyssa Buzas, principal, and Jules Hazlett, assistant principal, joined the bishop for his visit.
Davis-Frecker said the sprawling Brecksville Campus serves students in grades K-8 and in its Begindergarten program, a full-day kindergarten readiness program. There are plans for a new Friendship Courtyard at the school.
The Julie Billiart Network, established in 1954 by the Sisters of Notre Dame, is named after St. Julie Billiart, who founded the congregation in France. In addition to Brecksville, there are campuses in Lyndhurst, Akron and Westlake that educate nearly 500 students. Davis-Frecker said Julie Billiart also operates a summer camp program in July that serves about 600 students. Camp will be offered at the Brecksville location this summer.
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