Upon the appointment of Father James P. McElligott to sacred Heart Parish on February 9, 1953, it became his important distinction to formulate and complete the final arrangements and plans for the building of Sacred Heart School at Cooper and Oak Streets. On August 23, 1953, after four weeks of preparation, a massive parish-wide campaign was held by volunteer workers for subscriptions for building funds for the school and convent.
On September 13, 1954, the school was opened with 169 students registered in the first four grades. The teaching Sisters came from the order of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. The order was founded in France in 1866 and has many houses in Great Britain and Ireland. Five nuns of the order arrived in America in 1953 to teach in Atwater, and in 1954, five Sisters of the Sacred Hearts came to Turlock as the faculty of the new Sacred Heart School.