Cotter High School

Cotter Schools consists of the Cotter High School and Cotter Junior High School with students enrolled in grades 7-12. Cotter serves local and international students on its campus in Winona, Minnesota. Boarding is available for students in grades 8-12. Cotter Schools is the sole Roman Catholic High School in Winona, Minnesota, and is one of the first in the state. The school opened its doors on September 5, 1911 as the "Cotter School for Boys". Cotter, named for the diocese’s first bishop, Bishop Joseph Bernard Cotter, was a boys school directed by the Christian Brothers of Saint John Baptist de La Salle. In 1952, the Brothers turned the operation of the school over to the diocese and Cotter became co-educational with the combining of the Cathedral Girls High School. In 1953 a new Cotter building was erected and in 1962 an addition was added. In 1992, with help from an endowment from the Hiawatha Education Foundation, the school moved to its current location on the campus of the former College of Saint Teresa, allowing it to add a boarding school component.

The term "Cotter Family" refers to all the students, teachers, parents, administrators, alumni, volunteers, and church members affiliated with the school. Many of these members are in several groups. Roughly 50% of the faculty are alumni. Roughly 25-50%, depending on the year, of the student body are children of alumni, some third and fourth generations. In 1993, local businessmen, headed by Bob Kierlin of Fastenal, started an endowment fund of several million dollars granting the school a technological make-over and allowing it to move to the Saint Teresa campus.

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