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Paul VI High School opens Chantilly campus

Zoey Maraist | Catholic Herald Staff Writer

Bishop Michael F. Burbidge blesses the baseball diamond at the new St. Paul VI Catholic High School campus in Chantilly Aug. 27. ZOEY MARAIST | CATHOLIC HERALD

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Bishop Michael F. Burbidge blesses the new St. Paul VI Catholic High School campus in Chantilly after the official ribbon-cutting ceremony in front of the school Aug. 27. ZOEY MARAIST | CATHOLIC HERALD

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This story has been updated. 

Members of the St. Paul VI Catholic High
School community put a new address in the GPS as they headed off to school this
year. When they arrived, they were met by a building totally unlike the former
one. 

Fortunately, a familiar piece of the old
campus was there to let them know they were in the right place — a 6-ton rock
that has served as a colorful billboard of sorts, announcing school news to all
who pass by. In the school colors of black and gold, it simply read, “Welcome
home.”

St. Paul VI Catholic High School kicked
off the new year and the official opening of its Chantilly campus with a ribbon-cutting
ceremony, Mass and a blessing by Bishop Michael F. Burbidge Aug. 27.

Five years and 84 days ago, the Arlington
Diocese announced its plan to relocate Paul VI, a diocesan high school founded
in 1983, from its original home in the former Fairfax High School to a brand
new building on 68 acres in Loudoun County, said Head of School Ginny Colwell. 

“There have been years of planning and
design, negotiations and some compromise,” she said. “We have traveled as we,
as a PVI family, have always traveled — with faith, with hope, with love and
always with prayer. We are now in what I consider our forever home. We are
ready to make new memories.”

Read about the school chapel blessing.

The new school has some 60 classrooms,
eight science labs, a 700-seat theater and a cafeteria with indoor and outdoor
seating. A covered walkway leads to an athletic building with two gymnasiums, a
wrestling room and a trainer facility. The grounds have multiple sports fields
and tennis courts. 

The cost of construction, approximately
$78 million, was funded by a combination of proceeds from redeveloping the Fairfax
campus— which accounts for about half of the new campus expense — an ongoing
fundraising campaign, and debt.

About 40 of the school’s 1,000 students
attended the socially distanced ceremony, their smiles hidden by black masks.
They watched Bishop Burbidge and Colwell cut the black and gold ribbons, and
then accompanied Bishop Burbidge around the grounds as he blessed the façade of
the school, the theater, the basketball court, the football field and the
baseball diamond. They listened to his homily during Mass in the Mary, Mother
of God Chapel. 

“Approach this year in joyful
anticipation for the new gifts, the new blessings, the new opportunities that
God has waiting for you. Open the doors to truth and wisdom and to the lessons
that God will teach you this year,” Bishop Burbidge told them. “Your vocation
right now is to be a student, so just don’t get by. Give God your best efforts.”

 

After the morning’s festivities, Bishop
Burbidge joined the students for lunch in the school’s sunlit dining commons.
This week, the students have been going through orientation, acclimating
themselves both to a new building and new coronavirus prevention procedures.
Next week they’ll begin classes, with half the students in the building while
the other half learns from home. 

This wasn’t how Sabrina Smith pictured
her senior year starting, let alone the opening of their new school home. But
she’s glad they were able to celebrate together safely. “It’s not what I hoped
for, but I’m very proud of us as a school for how we’ve been able to do this,”
she said. 

She’ll miss the drive-thru Starbucks
next to Paul VI’s Fairfax campus but really won’t miss some other aspects of
the old school, such as the theater curtain that often got stuck during
rehearsal. “I’m nostalgic for the old memories of that school but I’m very
excited for this one,” said Smith. She’s been impressed by the beautiful
theater, and the rest of the facilities. “It’s all so new, I’m afraid to touch
anything. It almost doesn’t feel real,” she said. “The fact that we’re in here
and still able to do as much as we can, I’m very grateful for. It’s crazy
seeing (this) become a reality.”

Buy photos from the event at catholicherald.smugmug.com.

 

 

 

 

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