Chaminade College Preparatory is a private Catholic preparatory school with two campuses in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Named after Society of Mary founder Blessed William Joseph Chaminade, Chaminade College Preparatory consists of a middle school (encompassing grades 6–8) located in Chatsworth and a high school (encompassing grades 9–12) located in West Hills. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.Chaminade College Preparatory was recognized as a National Blue Ribbon School in 1998.HistoryOriginally called Chaminade High School for Boys, Chaminade College Preparatory was founded in 1952 on the former site of the Pacific Military Academy in West Los Angeles by members of the Marianist Province of the Pacific, who were seeking to expand their educational mission into Southern California. The school became nationally famous for the celebrity students who attended the school or came to its dances. The school's mascot name, the Eagles, can be traced to a tower at the school that featured an imposing Army Eagle emblem in tile, with the beak pointed toward the arrows as in wartime. The high school moved to its current location in West Hills (then part of Canoga Park) in 1961 after the brick buildings of the original campus were deemed unsound. A junior high school serving grades 7–9 was formed in 1967 when the former St. John's Military Academy in Chatsworth was leased by the school, expanding Chaminade's educational program from four to six years. A seventh year was added in 1989 with the addition of a 6th grade class to the junior high school; the ninth grade was moved to the high school campus that same year to accommodate the addition of the sixth grade to the junior high school, which would then become the middle school.