Ramirez Has Big Plans For Cardinal Stritch Campus
$24 million investment will help create northside Augustine Prep, making a mega-school.
Gus Ramirez speaks at the ribbon cutting for St. Augustine Preparatory Academy’s elementary school. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.
Gus Ramirez has big plans for the former Cardinal Stritch University campus.
Ramirez, the owner and retired CEO of Husco International, intends to launch a northside version of his successful St. Augustine Preparatory Academy K4-12 school. It would create an up to 5,000-student school spread over two campuses.
The Ramirez Family Foundation announced in late July it purchased the campus for $24 million, but was quiet on exactly what it would do with the 43-acre property beyond something with education.
On Tuesday, while celebrating the opening of a new elementary school at the Augustine Prep southside campus, Ramirez revealed that the former university campus would become a northside sister school. It is planned to open for the 2025-2026 school year.
“The Cardinal Stritch opportunity presents a chance to recruit a diverse student body,” said Ramirez. “The disappointment here, although we have some diversity, it’s not enough.”
The southside campus, now with the capacity for 2,400 students, serves a 92% Hispanic population at the intersection of S. 5th St. and W. Harrison Ave. The location of the university campus, on the border of Glendale and Fox Point, would make it easier to serve the predominantly Black northside of Milwaukee and white north-shore suburbs.
“Usually, the high-performing schools are usually dominated by one race, 90% or more, and that’s not good,” said Ramirez. “The Cardinal Stritch opportunity creates a chance to recruit a diverse student body.”
“The model isn’t built to be an excellent school for one demographic,” said Augustine Prep CEO Abby Andrietsch, Ramirez’s daughter
The two campuses would combine for sports, music and other activities. The school would purchase buses to connect the two campuses, which are 10.5 miles apart. It would help students form friendships across racial boundaries, he said.
“We are building these magnificent buildings, but what happens in the buildings is what sets us apart,” said Ramirez. The school, which opened in 2017, has earned a five-star rating from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction for two consecutive years.
Andrietsch said there is still much planning work to be done.
That includes how to attract students. Ramirez said he expects up to 25% of the students to be paying tuition versus participating in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program. Strategies include marketing to families in Ozaukee County, where there isn’t a private high school. He said the faith-based curriculum at Augustine Prep is a draw for some families in addition to the quality of the schools.
The athletics facilities could include a possible partnership with “The Opportunity Center” planned for development at W. Capitol Dr. and Interstate 43.
A change in state policy made the whole project possible, said Ramirez. The K-8 per pupil voucher payment was increased from $8,400 to $9,500 as a result of the Legislature’s bargain on funding local governments reached in June. High school vouchers increased from $9,045 to $12,000 per student. Augustine Prep reports spending $11,000 to $12,000 per year on students, raising the gap through private fundraising because the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program prohibits charging participants tuition.
“I delivered [the purchase offer] only when the new funding formula was prepared and passed,” said Ramirez. The hike in voucher payments, he noted, makes a difference of up to $10 million per year for Augustine Prep. He said without the increase, choice and charter schools would have needed to consider reducing enrollment or making other cuts to deal with rising costs.
Ramirez said he looked at the Cardinal Stritch campus completely differently than potential developers. He said they started their proposals with a $30 million deficit, the cost of clearing the site for new buildings. Augustine Prep saw the buildings as an asset, needing to invest only $10 million to demolish the residence halls and develop new athletic facilities. The result will be 450,000 square feet of remaining building space.
The hope is to finish the demolition by next summer, in time to start summer programming to recruit students.
“This family will have over $130 million invested in changing Milwaukee,” said Ramirez, totaling up the education investments. That includes $52 million for the first St. Augustine building, which is now the middle and high school, $49 million for the new elementary school and $35 million for the proposed Cardinal Stritch campus.
“With what we do here, we hope to glorify God and he will bless us,” said Ramirez.
For more on the elementary school expansion, see our July coverage or look for our additional coverage Wednesday of the ribbon cutting.
Cardinal Stritch announced in April it would close at the end of the school year. University officials blamed declining enrollment and growing financial issues.
If you think stories like this are important, become a member of Urban Milwaukee and help support real, independent journalism. Plus you get some cool added benefits.
Wow talk about putting your money where your mouth is! This guy is a national treasure
Watch the suckling begin.
Wow, talk about gutting public education on the taxpayers dime! This guy is a national disgrace hiding behind religion to pretend all they do is good with zero consequences.
In addition to their “Five Star Rating” I would like to see the data on the numbers of special needs students they have served, the scores that show any significant improvement in test scores for children performing below grade level, the number of students asked to leave for not measuring up, etc.
For the sake of speculation, let’s say that 80% of the planned 5000 students are funded through taxpayer money through the school choice program with around $10,000 roughly per student. Mr. Ramirez gets $40,000,000 a year of unaccountble funding to promote his version of Christianity and right wing political views. He also then gets to pick and choose his student body while culling out those who might require a high level of services. Any attempts for openness and accountability will be denied because he will say this is a religious school practicing his interpretation of Christian dogma-the Gospel according to Gus.