A new playground with soft, artificial turf now replaces an old, slanted blacktop at the Basilica School of St. Mary in Alexandria. Before the construction of a new playground at the school, students gathered for physical education and recreation on the rough pavement, resulting in many a scuffed knee or elbow.
The new playground is just one of many projects implemented through the school’s $15 million Mary Lead Us campaign launched in 2019. With 750 students ranging from pre-kindergarten to eighth grade, the basilica school is expanding its current resources and facilities. The projects include safer play spaces and an 8,000-square-foot connector building bridging the middle school and main school buildings. Currently, students have to walk from the middle school, rain or shine, to access the school cafeteria.
The new play spaces are located next to the school, farther from busy streets. The previous play area is now a faculty parking lot.
Physical education faculty member Amy Bruce said that she initially experienced challenges “working at a city-based school with no real recreational spaces (or) fields.” With the new playgrounds and recreational fields, students’ physical education and field days run smoothly. “The school construction plans also call for a drivable sports plaza, complete with three new basketball courts at the back of the school: a real game changer,” Bruce said.
Some 200 students participate in the extended day program. “Our new playground offers our students the space for joyful play, which is so valuable in learning,” said Principal Robert Loia. “Our students feel comfortable when on it, almost as if in their own home. Soon we will have contiguous play space on three sides of our main building, opening most of our campus to creative play.”
Admissions have grown since the school opened its main building in 1949, but finding adequate space for student activity has always been a challenge. Over the decades, the school completed multiple projects to ensure the safety of students in an urban setting.
Three years before the fundraising campaign launched, Father Edward C. Hathaway, rector, and former Principal Janet Cantwell began discussing future school growth with members of the school parent, faculty and alumni community. They ultimately decided to start a campaign to address school needs, including a new traffic-flow system for student drop off and pick up, increased learning services and programs for students with special needs, and a new library media center. So far, the campaign has raised $10.7 million.
Following Phase I of the school’s construction, the welcome lobby and vestibule area received several safety upgrades, including four receptionist desks and a glass dividing wall and double doors just inside the building entrance. The renovations also improved the administrative offices, the health and wellness center, cafeteria and chapel. The project cost $12 million, and included donations from school families and the parish patrimony.
The next phase of construction will be the large connector building, which will house the library and media center and the sports plaza.
“I’m grateful to God and for all of our school parents, faculty, and staff and our parish families who have supported this extraordinary project to advance our parish school,” said Father Hathaway. “I appreciate their belief in Catholic education and for wanting to have a school that meets the academic, social, physical, and emotional needs of the 21st century young learner. I am proud that our legacy of excellence continues with a school campus that is secure, engaging and contemplative for our students, state-of-the-art, and, of course, centered on Christ.”
