School/Parish History

---

St. Peter Catholic School
St. Peter Early Childhood Education Center was opened in September of 2003 under the direction of Monsignor Robert Jaeger and Peggy McFarland, Director. There were six preschool classes and one kindergarten. A first grade was added for the 2005-2006 school year, and subsequent grade levels were added almost every year after that. The first eighth grade class graduated in May of 2014.

St. Peter Church
St. Peter Church traces its heritage to 12 families who celebrated Mass at the Modern Woodmen of the World Hall in Monument in the early 1900s. Construction of a church began in 1911, and this building currently stands north of the new church. By the middle of the 1970s, the mission’s members numbered 90 families. Ground was broken for a new church in 1977 under the guidance of Father William Vollmer. The church community became a parish with a new church building in 1984, with Father Dean Kumba being named the first resident pastor.

Growth led to St. Peter buiding another new church. It was dedicated on the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul in 1994, and the old church became the parish hall. The St. Peter community continued to grow under the direction of Father (now Msgr.) Robert Jaeger, who was appointed pastor in 1994 after Father Kumba’s retirement.
St. Peter completed the building of its parish education center next to the church in January 2003. In May 2004, St. Peter completed its first full year of preschool and kindergarten in the education center, with first grade added in 2005. The school has added a grade each year since then and graduated its first eighth-grade class in 2014.

The parish completed a $5 million expansion project to include a parish hall/gymnasium with a commercial kitchen, four classrooms for the school and religious education programs, an expansion of the church and a new office complex. Holy Cross Father Jeffrey Schneibel served as pastor of the parish from July 2008 to June 2010. On July 1, 2010, Father Don Brownstein was named pastor of St. Peter Parish. Fr. Gregory  Golyzniak was named pastor of St. Peter Parish on August 19, 2003. A new rectory was built across from the church in 2014. The parish serves communities in Monument, Palmer Park, Larkspur, Gleneagle, Woodmoor and Northern El Paso County.