The first foundation of the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres in the Philippines was established on October 29, 1904 in Dumaguete Oriental Negros. St. Paul's Academy, an elementary school located near the Cathedral, accepted boys and girls and prepared them for their First Communion. The Sisters were installed in the old convent of the Augustinian Recollects that the Bishop had offered. The parish priest transferred his residence somewhere else.
January 9, 1905, the new school opened with 30 girls (15 of whom were aged 15 to 20), four of them boarders, and six boys. Children, women, and young men came to the school for religious instruction. Besides the regular academic courses, there were supplementary ones in music, drawing, painting, French, sewing, and embroidery. The medium of instruction was English. However, since the Americans had been in the Philippines only Five years, very few pupils were acquainted with the language. Hence, the Sisters were obliged to lean Visayan and Spanish to be able to communicate with their charges.