Bishop Donahue High School was opened in September 1955.

It was founded because of the need for a central high school to serve the Roman Catholics of Marshall County so that they would not have to travel great distances in order to obtain a Roman Catholic education beyond elementary school.

Prior to its founding, the only other Roman Catholic high schools in the Upper Ohio Valley in the state of West Virginia were Wheeling Central Catholic High School in Ohio County and Weirton Madonna High School in Hancock County.

In 1962, Our Lady of Peace Parish was founded in Mount Olivet in Marshall County, and its parish school became a feeder school of Bishop Donahue.

Saint Francis Xavier School in Moundsville closed in 2012.