New co-ed middle school coming to Benedictine location
The Office of Catholic Education will establish in Richmond a Catholic co-ed magnet middle school in the Sheppard Street building recently vacated by Benedictine College Preparatory, Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo announced. “Our desire is to create a uniquely excellent educational opportunity for middle school children in the greater Richmond community in a building that has […]
The Office of Catholic Education will establish in Richmond a Catholic co-ed magnet middle school in the Sheppard Street building recently vacated by Benedictine College Preparatory, Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo announced.
“Our desire is to create a uniquely excellent educational opportunity for middle school children in the greater Richmond community in a building that has been serving the youth of Richmond for 100 years,” Bishop DiLorenzo said.
The school, to be known as Saint Katharine Drexel Preparatory, will focus on science, technology, religion, engineering, arts, and math —called a STREAM magnet — and will serve students in grades six through eight.
The Diocese’s education office will spend a year establishing its curriculum and preparing the physical plant for the school’s first class. It will begin accepting students for the 2014-15 school year.
The Diocese named Dr. Tracy Bonday-de Leon, also currently chief administrator at Blessed Sacrament Huguenot Catholic School in Powhatan, as project manager.
“Saint Katharine Drexel Preparatory will offer students the opportunity to establish collaborative relationships, personalized experiential learning, and critical reasoning in math and science within a classical liberal arts framework and offer opportunities in the fine and performing arts,’’ said Dr. Bonday. “All of these will be grounded in moral theology and religion, in the Catholic faith tradition.
“We think Saint Katharine Drexel has the potential to provide an exceptional, well-rounded program of study and cross curricular instruction in technology, humanities, arts, and faith development,’’ said Bishop DiLorenzo. “The program we are planning will prepare students to excel in careers that are increasingly needed in the present and into the future.”
The Diocese’s new school will aim to serve a broad range of young people and boast a socio-economically and ethnically diverse student population. The school’s namesake, Saint Katharine Drexel S.B.A., was a 19th century Philadelphia-born philanthropist, educator and religious sister who founded numerous Catholic schools particularly for native American and African American students. She founded two schools in the greater Richmond area, St. Francis de Sales and St. Emma, which closed in the 1970s.
Ultimately, Katharine Drexel will educate about 300 middle schoolers.
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