Garriga Middle School gets new classrooms

Bishop Wm. Michael Mulvey blessed a new $1.75 million permanent classroom building at Bishop Garriga Middle Preparatory School on Monday, Aug. 29. Some 250 of the school’s students and faculty, along with friends and supporters witnessed the school’s inauguration.

“To seek, to learn, to be taught,” is the goal of a school, Bishop Mulvey said. The bishop said he was educated exclusively in Catholic schools.

“Hopefully students will find the image of Christ in their teachers,” Bishop Mulvey said.

The John G. and Marie Stella Kenedy Memorial Foundation funded the new addition to the school. Marc Cisneros, the foundation’s CEO, spoke of “the great impact Catholic education has on the community.”

“More parent involvement, better values and discipline,” Cisneros said are available to students who attend Catholic schools. Cisneros entered the Catholic school system when he was a junior in high school and graduated from a Catholic college.

“I have not seen a rich Catholic school. They all need our help,” he said.

A second $50,000 grant from the Kenedy Foundation equipped the building with the latest state-of-the-art technology, including interactive whiteboards installed in the new classrooms.

“The new building accommodates 11 of the school’s 16 teachers, and the community has embraced the change in a positive way. We now have 23 new students enrolled since last year and are expecting more after Labor Day,” School Principal Mario Vasquez said. The school’s total enrollment is 210.

Architects Ferrell/Brown & Associates, Inc. designed the 6,300 square-foot building to connect to the older administration building. The permanent building includes nine classrooms with support facilities.

The school held a groundbreaking for the new addition in December 2010 and Maltby Builders, Inc. was able to meet the goal of getting students into the new classroom facility by the start of the new school year.

Among the special guest was former school principal Margaret McGettrick, who is now Director of Education with the Texas Catholic Conference in Austin. “Being principal at Bishop Garriga Middle Preparatory School were some of the happiest years of my life,” McGettrick said.

Most of the students who enroll in Bishop Garriga Middle Preparatory School are from Corpus Christi Catholic elementary schools, such as, Central Catholic, Christ the King, Holy Family, Most Precious Blood and Sts. Cyril and Methodius.