Archdiocese Announces Leases for Five Former Catholic School Building for us as Charter School, Other Educational Facilities

Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien, Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, announced today that the Archdiocese has approved leases for five former Catholic school buildings for use as educational facilities in the Baltimore area.

Earlier this year, the Archdiocese announced a new policy for processing requests to sell or lease former Catholic school buildings. The process was created at the recommendation of the Archdiocesan Catholic School Board, following up on a recommendation by the Blue Ribbon Committee on Catholic Schools which issued in June 2010 a series of more than 50 recommendations to strengthen Catholic schools in the Archdiocese. The lease requests were approved because they were deemed not to be a threat to existing Catholic schools.

The five approved leases are:

NAME TYPE LOCATION
Midtown Academy Charter school Corpus Christi, Bolton Hill
St. Vincent de Paul Head Start-early childhood St. Francis Xavier, E. Baltimore
Project LIFT Adult literacy St. Brigid, Canton
The Baltimore Montessori Montessori school (18 mos.-6) Our Lady of Good Counsel, Locust Point
Little Flowers Early Development Daycare (18 mos.-4); Afterschool care St. Peter Claver, Baltimore

More than 20 former Catholic school buildings in the Archdiocese of Baltimore have been sold or leased for use as educational institutions.

“The Archdiocese has a long history of making its facilities available so they can continue to be used for the benefit of their surrounding communities,” Archbishop O’Brien said. “We are especially pleased when we can find partners in the community who share our interest in serving the educational needs of children and who respect our need to ensure the stability of our Catholic schools.”

For the current school year, 22 percent of students enrolled in Archdiocesan schools are not Roman Catholic. The Archdiocese and its schools and parishes provide financial support to students and offer subsidized bus transportation to seven Catholic schools in Baltimore City.