|
|
|
It’s a project that those involved said has been more than three years in the making.
That’s when Leavenworth Regional Catholic Schools President Barbara Ferrara said the schools’ current board of trustees started moving forward on a plan to consolidate the system’s three elementary-level campuses to one location as part of a strategic plan.
But the idea of a centralized kindergarten through eighth-grade campus stretched back even farther, with discussions taking place as far back as a decade ago, Ferrara said.
All of those discussions and fundraising efforts and years of planning came to fruition Saturday as the Catholic schools officially dedicated a new K-8 Xavier Catholic School.
The new school is located at 541 Muncie Road, formerly the location of the Leavenworth Public Schools’ Muncie Elementary School. LCRS bought the building, which sits on 16 acres on the southern edge of the city, last year following approval from Archbishop Joseph Naumann of the Kansas City in Kansas Diocese.
The building received a facelift this summer from Kaaz Construction, which included a renovation of the facade of the facility and the addition of a large cross sculpture and remodeling of the inside, carving the former school’s library into the Mother Xavier Ross Chapel and a media center.
Later phases include the construction of a new gymnasium, locker rooms and kitchen.
From the beginning, Ferrara said bringing the new location to where it needed to be has been driven mostly by the parents, parishioners and supporters of the school system — many of them as volunteers.
“There are truly too many to name them all,” she said.
Volunteers helped with everything from demolition, cleaning the classrooms to sprucing up the gymnasium and coordinating the moving of contents from the former three campuses to the new location.
“Moving the school was nothing short of miraculous,” Ferrara said.
All said, Ferrara said those volunteer efforts saved the LRCS more than $1 million on the project.
Dr. Kathleen O’Hara, superintendent of the Kansas City in Kansas Diocesan schools, also thanked the teachers, who worked to ready themselves and the school during the transition. Those teachers will be greeted when school begins Wednesday with gifts of salt and candles, showing that they are the “salt of the earth” and the “light of the world,” according to the Rev. Phil Winkelbauer.
Keith Schwinn, vice chairman of the board of trustees of the LRCS, said he was proud of the efforts made in service of future generations.
“There’s no greater treasure than our children,” he said.
Sister Maureen Hall, community director of the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth whose contribution paid for the chapel at the school, said the current occasion was a good opportunity to look back and forward, from the arrival of Sister Xavier Ross and the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth in 1858 to their establishment of the Catholic school system in the city soon after. She said the opening of Xavier Catholic School opens a new chapter.
“Let us together look forward to the good that is yet to be,” Hall said.
It’s a project that those involved said has been more than three years in the making.
That’s when Leavenworth Regional Catholic Schools President Barbara Ferrara said the schools’ current board of trustees started moving forward on a plan to consolidate the system’s three elementary-level campuses to one location as part of a strategic plan.
But the idea of a centralized kindergarten through eighth-grade campus stretched back even farther, with discussions taking place as far back as a decade ago, Ferrara said.
All of those discussions and fundraising efforts and years of planning came to fruition Saturday as the Catholic schools officially dedicated a new K-8 Xavier Catholic School.
The new school is located at 541 Muncie Road, formerly the location of the Leavenworth Public Schools’ Muncie Elementary School. LCRS bought the building, which sits on 16 acres on the southern edge of the city, last year following approval from Archbishop Joseph Naumann of the Kansas City in Kansas Diocese.
The building received a facelift this summer from Kaaz Construction, which included a renovation of the facade of the facility and the addition of a large cross sculpture and remodeling of the inside, carving the former school’s library into the Mother Xavier Ross Chapel and a media center.
Later phases include the construction of a new gymnasium, locker rooms and kitchen.
From the beginning, Ferrara said bringing the new location to where it needed to be has been driven mostly by the parents, parishioners and supporters of the school system — many of them as volunteers.
“There are truly too many to name them all,” she said.
Volunteers helped with everything from demolition, cleaning the classrooms to sprucing up the gymnasium and coordinating the moving of contents from the former three campuses to the new location.
“Moving the school was nothing short of miraculous,” Ferrara said.
All said, Ferrara said those volunteer efforts saved the LRCS more than $1 million on the project.
Dr. Kathleen O’Hara, superintendent of the Kansas City in Kansas Diocesan schools, also thanked the teachers, who worked to ready themselves and the school during the transition. Those teachers will be greeted when school begins Wednesday with gifts of salt and candles, showing that they are the “salt of the earth” and the “light of the world,” according to the Rev. Phil Winkelbauer.
Keith Schwinn, vice chairman of the board of trustees of the LRCS, said he was proud of the efforts made in service of future generations.
“There’s no greater treasure than our children,” he said.
Sister Maureen Hall, community director of the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth whose contribution paid for the chapel at the school, said the current occasion was a good opportunity to look back and forward, from the arrival of Sister Xavier Ross and the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth in 1858 to their establishment of the Catholic school system in the city soon after. She said the opening of Xavier Catholic School opens a new chapter.
“Let us together look forward to the good that is yet to be,” Hall said.
