Pictured: Immaculata Catholic School celebrated the end of a major renovation effort last October that significantly upgraded the school's technology in every classroom.HENDERSONVILLE — Immaculata School is kicking off a major capital project thanks to a grant of up to $1.9 million from Shea Homes.
A key component of the project will be a cutting-edge STEM Discovery Lab with a Maker Space Patio. Opening in 2022, the STEM Discovery Lab will be the only one of its kind serving pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade students in the region.
Principal Margaret Beale announced the news of the grant April 24, adding that the school has already secured nearly 50 percent of an additional $100,000 that the grant program stipulated the school must raise through its own campaign – potentially bringing the total contributions to $2 million.
Beale said the STEM Discovery Lab will greatly benefit students at the pre-K-8th grade school.
“The new STEM Discovery Lab will be a dedicated space for hands-on, inquiry-based learning,” she said. “Students will work together to finetune their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. As teachers guide their class through project-based learning, students will become masters of their education and take ownership of their learning. By instilling students with these essential skills, we are setting them up for great success in high school, college and beyond.”
Other elements of the capital project include relocating Immaculata’s front entrance and administrative offices. It comes on the heels of a nearly $1 million renovation completed in the fall of 2020 to install state-of-the-art technology and security systems at the school.
The grant program by Shea Homes, an award-winning homebuilder based in Walnut, California, supports Catholic schools throughout the United States in communities where the company builds homes.
“This extraordinary gift is not the first such gift made by Shea Homes to benefit our Catholic schools, and we remain grateful to them. The diocese has truly been blessed by individuals and groups such as Shea Homes that have bestowed multiple seven-figure gifts over time for capital projects that are having meaningful, long-term impacts on the lives of people served by our schools, parishes, and other diocesan entities like our college seminary,” said Jim Kelley, Director of Development for the Diocese of Charlotte.
Father Christian Cook, pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish and Immaculata School, expressed gratitude for the Shea Homes grant.
“The generosity of the donor, Shea Homes, does more for our school than merely allowing us to improve the curb appeal of our facility. This gift will enable Immaculata to have a transformational impact on our current students and future generations in our community,” he said.
The dedicated STEM Discovery Lab, Father Cook said, will advance the school’s mission of bringing together science and faith in a holistic educational approach.
“All too often our culture wants to present faith as being incompatible with math and science, with reason and logic. But as St. John Paul II wrote in Veritatis Splendor, ‘…science and technology do not free us from the obligation to ask religious questions but spur us on to face the most difficult questions of the heart and conscience.’ We want our students to graduate from Immaculata with the foundations to confront the most difficult questions that their future will most certainly bring.”
Gayden and Janell Gauthier, who are among the donors to the school’s campaign, shared, “We support Catholic schools because we envision a Catholic education as a beacon of hope – nurturing students as disciples of Christ and preparing them spiritually, intellectually, socially and physically to face the challenges of the 21st century.”
Established in 1926, Immaculata School currently has 149 students enrolled in pre-K to 8th grade and is fully accredited through Cognia (formerly AdvancEd).
— Tara Hackman for the Catholic News Herald