Regina High plans 2007
move to Warren
Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published February 17, 2006
Detroit — Barring unforeseen snags, all-girls Regina High School will move from Harper Woods to Warren in time for the 2007-08 school year.
"We've executed a purchase agreement for the Zoe Christian School/Grace Christian Church property, and have entered the due diligence phase of the negotiations," Sr. Leanne Leszczynski, SSJ-TOSF, Regina's principal for 31 years, said Monday.
Originally built in the 1960s as Melby Junior High School, the 110,000-square-foot building on Masonic Road (13 1/2 Mile) east of Schoenherr Road has been a combination Protestant church and school the past 13 years.
Environmental studies and building inspections should be completed by March 10, she said, adding, "If all goes well, we expect to close on the sale in May of this year."
Renovations of the building, including adding a chapel, would then take just more than a year, Sr. Leszczynski added. She said she was "not at liberty" to disclose the purchase price.
Sponsored by the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Third Order of St. Francis, Regina opened on Kelly Road in Harper Woods in 1956. From a height of more than 700, enrollment has been falling over the past decade, Sr. Leszczynski said.
Now, more than 60 percent of its 496 students come from Macomb County. Similar trends helped do in Regina's long-time neighbor, the all-boys Notre Dame High School, last year.
"Right now, we are still financially sound. We need to move now while we still can," Sr. Leszczynski said.
But while Regina already runs a bus to bring students from as far north as 23 Mile Road, it also draws students from the Grosse Pointes, so she said they didn't want to move too far north.
Sr. Leszczynski acknowledged Regina and the new Catholic high school planned for northern Macomb County would be competing for many of the same students, but said many parents recognizes the advantage of Regina's all-girls educational environment.
Besides giving Regina its own athletic fields for the first time, the 10-acre site is just a mile north of all-boys De La Salle Collegiate, which Sr. Leszczynski said she hopes will serve as a brother school to Regina, as Notre Dame once did.
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