Augustine Prep Opens $49 Million Elementary School

St. Augustine Preparatory School classroom. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Milwaukee has a brand new elementary school, just in time for the new school year.

St. Augustine Preparatory Academy, a Christian voucher school, celebrated the opening of its new $49 million elementary school on Tuesday. The school is the largest single-campus K4-12 school in Wisconsin.

Founder Gus Ramirez said the school’s expansion is aimed at creating more capacity to provide a quality education to students.

“There are so many schools in our great cities that are not serving our students adequately and that’s what we want to tackle,” said Ramirez to the large crowd assembled in the 606-seat theater.

The school, founded in 2017, has seen strong results so far. It has received a five-star rating, the highest available, from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction for two consecutive years.

The new building, which fills an entire city block at S. 5th St. and W. Harrison Ave., will allow for substantial growth across all grade levels because it frees up additional space at the middle and high school building across the street.

“We are building these magnificent buildings, but what happens in the buildings is what sets us apart,” said Ramirez, the owner and retired CEO of Husco International. The businessman, through his family foundation, is by far the leading funder of the school.

The Augustine Prep student body will grow from 1,500 to 2,400 over the next four years, with students entering at the K4, sixth-grade and ninth-grade levels. It enters the 2023-2024 school year with approximately 1,850 students.

CEO Abby Andrietsch, Ramirez’s daughter, said the school deliberately keeps its middle and high school grade levels larger. It provides an opportunity for students to transfer in from other schools. “We don’t want to be a place you can only start as a four-year-old,” said Andrietsch.

Within two miles of the school, Andrietsch noted that 17,000 students are in schools, whether public, charter or choice, rated by DPI as mediocre or failing. “When looking at Milwaukee as a whole, one in five students are proficient in math and reading,” said the education policy veteran.

The three-story, 123,000-square-foot building includes a number of arts and culture amenities, including the theater, that aren’t present in the 2017 building. A suite of music classrooms are located on the top floor, for use by students of all grade levels. A new library will allow a smaller one in the high school to be converted to a family center. A full-size gymnasium is included in the middle of the new school. Atop the gym, an open-air deck in the middle of the third floor will bring more natural light in and allow for outdoor programming.

Tuesday’s ribbon-cutting  drew a large crowd, including state representatives Robert Wittke and Sylvia Ortiz-Velez, state senator Duey Stroebel, philanthropist Christine Symchych, retired Zywave CEO Bill Haack and his wife Sandra, Bader Philanthropies executive Frank Cumberbatch, Badger Institute policy director Patrick McIlheran, ManpowerGroup executive Chris Layden and his wife, Milwaukee Succeeds head Vincent Lyles, Police Chief Jeffrey Norman, Milwaukee Development Commissioner Lafayette Crump, Summerfest president Sarah Smith Pancheri, marketing firm head Cory Savage, business consultant Julie Tolan, architect Jason Korb, banker Ivan Gamboa, and current HUSCO CEO Austin Ramirez, Gus’s son.

The school opens to students on Thursday. The student body is 92% Hispanic and nearly 99% of students are participants in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program. Eight percent of the students have disabilities requiring an individualized education program.

VJS Construction Services constructed the new building, but won’t be able to finish the job until exterior facade panels are delivered. Korb + Associates Architects designed the building.

For more information on the school building, including how it required purchasing 30 properties, see our July coverage. For details on how a sister school is planned for the former Cardinal Stritch University, read our coverage from Tuesday.

Not A ‘Woke’ School

Ramirez talks openly and proudly about the school’s faith commitment, including how it’s infused throughout its curriculum.

The school’s religious focus is evident in a special room for its “Godly Play” curriculum. The school operates on a four-pillar model that includes faith, family, academics and athletics and arts.

“We are unabashedly a Christian school. Our teachers have to be strong Christians and be a model for our students. And if they’re not, then we have strong discussions,” said Ramirez. “It’s a hard line to walk, recognize education today, all that’s happening, the funding issues, the woke coming into the school, parents and staff arguing about curriculum, there is just a lot of stuff that hasn’t existed in the past. In all likelihood, in the short-term, it’s going to make schools worse, not better.”

The difference in styles between the more free-speaking Ramirez and the more carefully worded Andrietsch was laid bare when a reporter asked a follow-up question about what Ramirez meant by “woke.”

“Don’t engage,” said Andrietsch repeatedly, but Ramirez answered.

“You are well-read enough to know what is happening in Virginia and other places,” said Ramirez. Governor Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, signed an executive order banning the teaching of critical race theory and other topics, which has caused controversy.

“We are not bringing those cultural wars within in how we do our work every day,” said Andrietsch, who reiterated that the school strived to be transparent about what it teaches.

“We are not for everybody,” said Ramirez. “We don’t want anybody to be surprised that the school is talking about a faith element in social studies.”

“We do not require kids or families to sign a statement of faith to come here,” said Andrietsch. “We are purposeful in our team and building of our team and, as Gus shared, we are unapologetic about who we are as a school… As a school, every day what we do is with every student, whether or not they agree with us, they could openly disagree with us, when they walk in these doors they feel known, safe and loved.”

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