Newport — Students at St. Charles Borromeo School in Newport are going to have to get used to that “new hallway smell.”

St. Charles finished a $1.65 million, nine-classroom addition this August, which will house first through eighth grades in addition to a new principal’s office and library.

The fundraising aspect of the project began a few years ago through the Changing Lives Together campaign, and on Nov. 2, 2016, construction began for the new addition.

“St. Charles School has been in existence for a good 100 years,” St. Charles pastor Fr. Anthony Camilleri told The Michigan Catholic. “After hard work by the people of God here at St. Charles, they’ve decided to continue it through a nine-room classroom addition on the other side of the gym, so now all the students can be under one roof.”

The expansion is south of the gym/parish hall that was built in the early 1990s. The gym serves as a divider between the new building and the 1966 building that housed grades 5-8 and will house the early childhood development program, pre-K and kindergarten.

The original St. Charles School building, built in 1913, housed grades 1-4, pre-K, kindergarten and the art and music programs.

“Our staff is very excited about the new classrooms,” St. Charles principal Catherine Grinn said. “Our lower elementary students are excited. They were in the old building, so they will get ‘new’ classrooms in the 1966 building. And the upper elementary teachers are excited, because we’re all going to be working together in the same building.” Grinn and Fr. Camilleri said the school has received tremendous support from the parish community, noting many students are the sixth- and seventh-generation of students who’ve attended the school – which has a projected enrollment of 222 this year.

“We raised just over $1 million, the archdiocese gave us $500,000, and the project in total is $1.65 million,” Fr. Camilleri said. “I attribute that generosity to the generations who were born and lived here all their lives. There is a gentleman in our parish who spoke to me when I first got here a year ago. He said when his son enters kindergarten it’ll be the seventh generation to have attended St. Charles.

“People have the tendency to live here and stay here,” Fr. Camilleri said. “They like their community, and they want to see it continue in the way they’ve seen it in the past. Strong faith, strong community, those kinds of things.”

Discussion about a new school building began 20 years ago, according to Grinn, who said the 1913 building was becoming inadequate; the parish plans to tear it down soon.

“When you’re in three different buildings, it’s hard to have that collaboration as a staff,” Grinn said. “They did a good job with it, but we’re excited to be under one roof.”

The school grounds also had some landscaping work done, with new trees planted around the kindergarten and pre-K playground.



“We had another generous parishioner who had a lot of property and bought and planted 100 saplings, knowing the parish will need landscaping on the grounds,” Fr. Camilleri said. “He already had trees planted on the parish grounds in various places. He wanted to plant the trees so they could protect the school and give the landscape a nice, even keel.”

Other parishioners donated their time in helping the school move out equipment and supplies from the old building into the new addition — one family with carpentry skills built stained bookshelves to go into the new library.

“It’s good to see the faithful come together for projects like this,” Fr. Camilleri said. “We have elderly people praying for the project, participating in different part of the parish’s fundraising efforts.”

The new building isn’t the only major change coming to the school. Starting this year, St. Charles School will become St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Academy. The school will reveal the new name and crest during a Mass and blessing of the building with Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron at 8:30 a.m. on Aug. 30.

“A core part of the archbishop’s message is for strong Catholic education,” Fr. Camilleri said. “By changing the name to St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Academy, we want people to recognize that Catholic education is taken seriously in the outlying counties of the archdiocese.”

With the new building and new name ready to go, Grinn is excited for the school’s future.

“I’m most excited about sharing this new building with our kids,” Grinn said. “Everything we do at the school we do for the kids. We’ve had a lot of support from the community, the parish and parents. But it all comes down to the kids.”