Aug Prep Announces Bold New Plans for K-12 North Campus
$100 million total investment will transform former Cardinal Stritch campus
Milwaukee (February 27, 2024) – St. Augustine Preparatory Academy (“Aug Prep”), a high-performing K4-12 Christian school, announced today bold new plans to invest a total of $100 million to transform the former Cardinal Stritch University property into St. Augustine Preparatory Academy’s North Campus. Plans for the school, which will be known as Aug Prep North, now include significant new construction, along with some renovation and upgrades to existing buildings.
The project represents a $100 million total investment, including the $24 million initial cost of property acquisition. The new campus will open in fall 2026 with just over 300 students in grades K4-6th and 9th and will grow to serve 1,000-plus students in grades K4-12. Beyond this initial investment, a second phase is envisioned for the future which would eventually build capacity to reach 2,000-plus students. VJS Construction Services has been appointed the general contractor with EUA serving as the architect.
Following the announcement of the Ramirez Family’s acquisition of the former Cardinal Stritch University campus for $24 million in July 2023, an assessment of the campus’s buildings determined that the costs for renovation far exceeded what was viable for older building structures. As a result, several existing buildings — many of which date back to the 1960s — will be demolished to allow for the construction of new facilities that foster a robust learning environment. The existing gym, library, campus center and fine arts building will undergo renovations while the remainder of the buildings will be torn down. The scale of changes will shift the school’s opening date from 2025 to 2026.
Aug Prep has developed preliminary plans for the site; building and campus designs for Aug Prep North are being finalized and will be aligned with the exceptional facilities found at Aug Prep South. The school expects to share additional details later this year. The school is being designed to equip and develop the whole child, including state-of-the art classrooms, STEM labs, music and fine arts spaces as well as athletics facilities including a new fieldhouse, a turf soccer field, and an outdoor track. The campus will also include facilities for college and career readiness, and healthcare.
“We know that providing a rigorous academic experience while serving the whole child – mind, body and soul – will open doors to develop our students into future leaders,” said Abby Andrietsch, CEO of Aug Prep. “Our students across Milwaukee are full of limitless potential. It is our job to help them unlock that potential. I cannot wait to see the impact our students will have on our community, our state and our world when we have hundreds of Aug Prep students graduating every year.”
Vision for All Kids
Since the launch of its South Campus in 2017, Aug Prep has quickly grown to become one of the top-rated K4-12 schools in Wisconsin, exceeding or significantly exceeding expectations every year on the State of Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction report card.
Originally launched on the south side of Milwaukee with 560 students, Aug Prep’s founding campus (Aug Prep South) has grown to serve more than 1,800 predominantly low-income students of color in just six years. The South Campus will grow to serve more than 2,400 students over the next three school years.
Aug Prep plans for its North Campus to be “diverse by design,” leveraging the location of the campus to intentionally build a diverse student body – racially, culturally and socioeconomically.
“We didn’t build Aug Prep to be a great school for students on Milwaukee’s south side. We built it to be a great school for all students, regardless of geography, income or zip code,” noted Andrietsch. “We want to build a school community that represents the world we live in, where our children learn with and from each other, ultimately becoming better friends, better teammates, better employees, and better citizens.”
Community Effort
Aug Prep was co-founded by Gus and Becky Ramirez. The Ramirez family and Husco, a lead benefactor of Aug Prep, have committed $75 million in the initial phase at Aug Prep North. To ensure that the school has the resources and facilities to help students reach their full potential, Aug Prep is launching a $25 million fundraising campaign to invite additional investment from the Milwaukee community and beyond. In the first weeks of the campaign, over $5.5 million in contributions has already been secured.
“We firmly believe that a high-quality education is the single most important factor resulting in economic prosperity and career options,” Gus Ramirez said. “This fall, we encountered and grappled with unexpected, significant additional costs for the project. At the end of the day, we remain deeply committed to the vision and promise of this school. Our primary goal is to create opportunities for Milwaukee youth to develop into impactful men and women whose values and faith set them apart. We have faith that the community will invest with us to support this project and its mission.”
To learn more about how you can support the vision for Aug Prep North, please visit augprep.org/comingsoon or reach out to [email protected].