Seton Catholic plans to fill out campus in East Valley

By Andrew Junker | Oct. 15, 2009 | The Catholic Sun

CHANDLER — Seton Catholic Preparatory is ready to begin construction on the shell of a new building that will provide much needed classroom and fine arts space.

“This building will transform our school and allow us to enhance many of our programs,” said Paula Osterday, director of development for the high school.

“We will be able to grow our fine arts program to include better facilities for dance, choir, drama, band, art and pottery. The addition of a foreign language lab will give us the ability to offer more foreign languages, including Mandarin Chinese,” she said.

Groundbreaking on the shell of the building — which will sit west of the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Chapel on the campus — is slated for the first quarter of 2010. While Seton has raised the $2.3 million to construct the shell, it still needs to raise $3.2 million to complete the multi-purpose building.

“Our hope is, with God’s help, to have the building open and ready for students in the fall of 2011,” Osterday said.

The new building will be three stories tall. The ground level, or basement floor, will be mostly dedicated to fine arts classes: pottery, dance, drama, choir, orchestra, the newspaper and graphic arts. The first floor will have a 400-seat black box theater and eight multi-use classrooms.

The second floor will have eight multi-use classrooms as well.

The new building will allow Seton to up enrollment from 560 to 700 and will make student recruitment more attractive, said Pat Collins, principal of the school.

“I am most excited about the expansion of our fine arts program because studies have shown that participation in the fine arts develops well-rounded students who are critical thinkers and who can apply problem solving skills in this complex world,” Collins said.

Osterday also mentioned the fact that 20 percent of Seton’s faculty has to “float” from class to class, because they lack a dedicated room for their instruction.

“Currently, we conduct two classes per day in our library due to lack of classroom space,” she said. “In short, the benefits of the new building will include: an improved educational experience, enhanced ability to recruit students, increased class offerings and diversity, better prepared college candidates and improved morale and school pride.”

The school isn’t worried about completing fundraising for the project. Many times, fundraising increases substantially when potential donors can see the building already being erected.

That’s a good thing, Collins said, because Seton has an important role to play in the Diocese of Phoenix.

“With the growth of the East Valley, Seton Catholic Preparatory is the only Catholic high school serving the needs of those seeking a quality Catholic education in this area,” she said. “If the Church is to flourish, we need graduates who are not only academically prepared, but we need young leaders who have a moral compass.”