ST. CLOUD -- A local high school broke ground on their newest building Sunday afternoon.

Students, staff, alumni, and community members gathered at Cathedral High School to celebrate the beginning of construction on their first new building in 52 years.

The build site was previously home to the original school, the North Building, which was razed in 1989 before becoming the North Parking Lot.

Bishop Donald Kettler says the new facilities will allow for growth in student learning and enrollment.

It's going to allow for different kinds of education to happen better because the facilities are going to be better: science, all the arts. This is going to provide better opportunities for the kids and I think more opportunities for more of them.

The new building will house learning spaces for science, engineering, visual arts, and a chapel. Construction is expected to be completed just in time for the start of the 2020-2021 school year.

Kettler says they could not have gotten this far without community support.

When you're building something, a church, a school, whatever when you're doing that, you're alive and you're growing. So that's the most important thing: to be able to be able to do some things right now. There's always challenges in the church and so on, and when we see something like this we know that despite all that, we're moving forward.

Thanks to a recent $500,000 matching challenge, the Campaign for Cathedral has now raised $15.7 million of the $16.5 million needed for the project.

Additionally, the St. Cloud Catholic Community School system is looking to raise $1.5 million to go to their eight area elementary schools.

 

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