Saturday, March 14, 2009

Short 21 Jesuits

St. John's to renovate priest home for classes


St. John's Jesuit High School and Academy is creating more room for its students with a little reorganization.
The school's foundation recently purchased a Springfield Township home for its Jesuit priests and plans to renovate the current Jesuit Residence on campus for student use.
"It's a little tight in the academy," the school's president, the Rev. Joaquin Martinez said. "More space will be good for them."
The seventh and eighth grade students in St. John's Jesuit Academy have grown from 60 to 80 to a capacity 100 students now, Father Martinez said.
The school plans to renovate the bedroom and other areas of the residence into space suitable for school use for those students, which could include classrooms, he said.
The high school has about 845 students enrolled.

The residence attached to the back of St. John's originally was built for 25 Jesuits and in recent years some of that space already has been converted for school use, such as offices.

There remains about 9,600 square feet of space for the Jesuit Residence, while there currently are only three Jesuits and one candidate, Father Martinez said.
The school's foundation purchased a $261,500, four-bedroom house on Scenic Circle for them to live in.
St. John's opted to buy a house in a nearby neighborhood rather than build one on campus, Father Martinez said. The house is just over four miles west of the school.
"That is the trend," Father Martinez said. "A number of high schools now have moved the Jesuit community off campus."
The move is expected to happen sometime this summer, but the school wants to have a detailed plan for their renovations of the two-story residence before they begin any renovations, Father Martinez said.
It's still early in the process and he said he's not sure when the space will be ready for student use.

Link (here) to the original article

Photo of Father Joaquin Martinez, S.J. (center) Gilbert Sunghera, S.J. (left) and Michael Gilson, S.J. (right).

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