5 years after first opening the doorways of St. Augustine Preparatory Academy on Milwaukee’s south facet, Gus Ramirez former CEO of Waukesha-based Husco Worldwide and founding father of the Ramirez Household Basis, stood in the midst of a brand-new stage in a brand-new constructing on Tuesday morning, to have a good time one other main milestone for the rising personal Christian faculty.
Ramirez, his household, and legions of faculty alternative supporters, have been there to have a good time and unveil a brand new, $49 million elementary faculty for the Ok-12 Aug Prep campus that now serves roughly 1,800 college students.
“That is really a joyous event. Virtually 9 years in the past, the imaginative and prescient for this faculty began to come back into my being. Becky (his spouse) and I thought of it, and we got here up with a imaginative and prescient of a college that might serve 2,500 college students, and graduate 215 annually. If we may try this, we thought we may begin altering the unfavourable momentum we see in faculties at this time,” Ramirez mentioned of the high-performing alternative faculty that serves predominantly low-income Hispanic college students. “We (constructed) these superb buildings, however ultimately, it’s that magic that occurs within the classroom that creates the outcomes.”
Along with offering a devoted campus to serve St. Augustine Preparatory Academy college students in grades K4 by way of 5, the brand new constructing will present the area wanted to coach 900 extra college students and assist the south facet faculty attain an general enrollment aim of two,400 college students.
The brand new elementary faculty is situated throughout West Harrison Avenue from the college’s 2017 constructing – a construction that may now primarily serve center and highschool college students – and consists of state-of-the artwork lecture rooms and multipurpose areas together with a library, music wing, full-sized gymnasium, an auxiliary fitness center, a rooftop play area, in addition to a performing arts middle with seating for 600.
Pewaukee-based VJS Building Providers was the mission’s building supervisor.
For 2 years in a row, Aug Prep has achieved a five-star score on the state of Wisconsin Division of Public Instruction (DPI) report card, states an Aug Prep press launch. The college presently has an lively ready listing of over 200 college students throughout all grades. In its most up-to-date software cycle in February 2023, it had over 2,300 purposes for 1,800 alternative seats.
“Our metropolis’s college students and their households deserve brighter futures, and offering entry to a high-quality schooling is by far essentially the most consequential factor we are able to do to assist them obtain that,” Ramirez added. “The scholars who stroll by way of our doorways are full of many God-given abilities, and it’s our calling to assist them fulfill their given potential. At Aug Prep, we’re placing extra college students on a path to prosperity and, in flip, creating engaged residents and leaders of tomorrow.”
Aug Prep serves college students from 42 zip codes, with greater than 95% of scholars from various backgrounds and 81% qualifying for the free or reduced-price lunch program. The college has a 94% pupil attendance charge and re-enrolled almost 97% of its college students for the upcoming yr, in line with the college.
The establishment has additionally had an influence on the group, in line with info supplied by the college. Since its opening, crime within the space has dropped by greater than 43% in line with information from the Milwaukee Police Division, faculty employees mentioned.
This fall, the college will immediately make use of over 250 folks.
“At Aug Prep, our job is to equip our college students with the instruments and sources they should take purposeful and flourishing subsequent steps academically, spiritually and socially. This enlargement offers us a bigger platform to achieve much more college students,” mentioned Abby Andrietsch, president and CEO of Aug Prep in a press launch. “We all know the necessity for high-quality schooling is dire for college kids and households in Milwaukee. But since our founding in 2017, our devoted and loving crew has persistently proven that it’s certainly attainable to realize higher outcomes for Milwaukee’s college students. We take immense delight in the truth that yearly we’ve got grown larger, we’ve got additionally gotten higher. As we develop once more, we’re dedicated to creating positive this continues.”
The brand new faculty yr at Aug Prep begins on Thursday, Aug. 24.
