Garrigan breaks ground on grade school addition

By RENEE WEBB
Content and Design Coordinator

About 10 months after Bishop Garrigan Schools in Algona announced proposed plans for a $9 million capital campaign to fund a grade school addition and other projects, the school is beginning to see their plans become a reality as a groundbreaking ceremony was held May 27.

According to Christy Peterson, president of Bishop Garrigan, the groundbreaking represented a proud moment in the school’s history as it is thriving and growing.

“It’s always exciting to see a goal come to life,” she said. “I’ve been a part of three groundbreakings in the time I’ve been here – about 15 years – back in Algona. We’ve done the new gym, the chapel and now Seton (Grade School).”

During the ceremony the pastor of Divine Mercy Parish, Father Matthew Solyntjes, offered a prayer and blessed the site befFather Matthew Solyntjes, pastor of Divine Mercy Parish, leads prayer at the groundbreaking.ore various constituents including students who had the opportunity to take a shovel and break ground.

The school president also had the chance to update the school community on the campaign, noting that $4.5 million has been pledged for the project that will be divided into three phases.

Growth creates need
The new grade school addition will house nine new classrooms, restrooms, administrative offices and a new entrance.

John Kesselring, Garrigan preschool through sixth grade principal, called the groundbreaking on the campus of Seton Grade School exciting.

“A lot of people have put in a lot of time and work to get us to this point,” he said, noting that this is one of the largest projects for the school since it opened in 1959.

After months of planning and raising funds through the Expanding the Vision, Honoring the Tradition Campaign, school officials said the groundbreaking was right on track for the timing of the project. It was their goal to start construction this summer.

“The addition will allow for the expansion of our first and second grade. Then the third grade will come back to Seton in 2027,” said the grade school principal.

The school officials said the expansion at Seton will help ensure they do not have overly crowded early childhood classrooms or the necessity to cap the number of students per grade due to classroom space.

“Our classrooms are really full and we don’t have to have a waiting list, put a cap on it. That’s not who we are, we never want to turn anyone away,” said Kesselring, who added that they also want to maintain a proper teacher to student ratio. “It’s not good for kids and not good for teachers to have 20 to 25 students in a classroom especially in these foundational years.”

The proper teacher to student ratio, he added, is also a plus for teacher retention.

Because there has been such growth in the lower grades, Kesselring said they really need to have three sections – three classrooms – per grade. The expansion at Seton will allow for this.

“We are growing throughout our whole system, but we do have exponential growth in early childhood, the Seton building,” he said. By moving the third grade back to Seton for the 2027-28 school year, “this allows the Garrigan building to start preparing for the next wave as well.”

To put the growth into perspective, Peterson pointed out they had 28 graduates this year and 42 students in 4-year-old preschool.

“That’s a lot of growth,” she said.

Along with the addition to the grade school building, Kesselring said the project will include updates to current classrooms at Seton.

Students take part in groundbreaking ceremony.
Additional projects
Phase one also includes improvement to the football stadium by way of new bleachers as well as bathrooms at Garrigan. Work on the bleachers has already begun and is expected to be finished this August.

Peterson mentioned that once the grade school addition is wrapped up, the bathrooms at Garrigan will be renovated. That portion of phase one is expected to be completed in the summer of 2027.

“Phase two will be the bus barn and reconfiguring the parking at Garrigan,” she noted. “Phase three will be a weight room with multi-purpose space and increasing the endowment for our Bear Care, which is daycare.”

In thanksgiving
The school administrators expressed gratitude to all who have contributed to the campaign thus far.

“We offer a huge thank you to the people who have participated already in the campaign. We are so proud that the campaign involves so many people of multiple generations – people that have been with Garrigan from the beginning as well as those who have come into the Garrigan family in the last few years,” said Peterson.

That diverse level of participation, she added, ties in well with the theme of the campaign: Expanding the Vision, Honoring the Tradition.

Kesselring said the campaign would not have happened without the generosity and commitment of many.

“There is a lot of pride in the school and the community,” he said, adding that Algona is proud to have Garrigan as part of their community and the parish strongly backs the school. “We are very fortunate to live in an area that believes in Catholic education.”  

Among those who have contributed to the campaign, are individuals who gave to the very first building at Garrigan and now to the expansion at Seton.

“That’s 70 years of commitment to Garrigan,” said Peterson. “But it can’t be forgotten to thank those who came into Garrigan in the last two to five years who have made big donations to the future of the next 70 years and that’s what it is all about.”

The school continues to take pledges for the campaign. Contact Peterson at [email protected] for more information.

The Garrigan president said this project came together successfully and so quickly out of the collaboration between the Garrigan school community, Divine Mercy Parish and the Diocese of Sioux City.

“It shows what can happen when you have a true partnership for Catholic education,” she said.
 
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