Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2008 / Girl's Catholic high school reschedules opening to 2010
Girl's Catholic high school reschedules opening to 2010
by Joe Kohn of The Michigan Catholic
Published November 28, 2008
Detroit – In 2008, organizers of St. Catherine of Siena Academy have made significant progress toward opening the new girl's Catholic high school in Wixom. Unfortunately, the year also brought with it financial woes that will delay the opening of the school until 2010.
"Everything is ready to go as far as the plans being drawn up," says Janet Filip, director of development for St. Catherine of Siena Academy. "It's a matter of the financing."
St. Catherine of Siena Academy
What: An all-girls Catholic high school.
When: It's tentatively scheduled to open in spring 2010.
Where: In Wixom at Twelve Mile and Napier roads.
Who's involved: The school is being started by the planners, architects and managers who built the Detroit Catholic Central High School building in Novi. It will be staffed by the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, from Lansing.
How it's funded: The school will be financed long-term and an endowment will be created.
Online: Visit www.saintcatherineacademy.com. |
St. Catherine of Siena Academy previously had been slated to open in the fall of 2009, and still is expected to be staffed by the Lansing-based Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. It will be located at Twelve Mile and Napier roads.
The academy board – comprised largely of the organizers who helped Detroit Catholic Central High School move from Redford Township to Novi — already has a land purchase agreement, architectural drawings and a master plan to start building St. Catherine Academy. The holdup has to do with the academy's inability to cash in bonds to get the project off the ground – a result of the country's current economic crisis.
In a letter to supporters, the board said their investment bank, Oppenheimer & Co., Inc., could not find a market to sell the bonds. The finalization of the land deal and groundbreaking have subsequently been rescheduled from this month until spring 2009.
When it opens in 2010, the administration expects to accept both a freshman and sophomore class.
Other than the delay, plans have run smoothly for St. Catherine Academy. They've secured permission from the Archdiocese of Detroit and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to start the high school. They also have a small staff, including Filip and a director of stewardship, working from an office two miles from the building site.
Filip says interest in the new girl's Catholic high school "has been great," although there's obvious disappointment in the delayed opening. She says the school plans to draw from 15 "feeder schools," mostly within the Archdiocese of Detroit. St. Catherine's location will make it easy for families who already are sending their sons to Detroit Catholic Central, she adds.
"It's a great location," Filip says. "We're about a mile away from Catholic Central High School, so for families who are looking for this location for convenience, it should be a great benefit to them. And certainly the location is great for families from Washtenaw, Livingston and Genesee counties."
Originally, St. Catherine Academy was to have been built on a site adjacent to the Catholic Central property on Wixom Road near Grand River Ave., but issues with land use at that location made the Twelve Mile and Napier site more attractive.
Overall, Filip says St. Catherine Academy will take about $29.5 million to start. The school will employ a long-term debt financing model, using regular donations to pay down the startup cost while simultaneously building an endowment fund for the future.
"It's not just something we want people to donate to once — we want them to be a part of our mission, and obviously that will translate into fundraising down the road," Filip says, adding that the school also would welcome those who want to contrinbute time and talents.
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