6/13/11 – Officials with St. Katherine Drexel broke ground yesterday on an expansion of their Elementary School. Parishioners voted on the project last year that involves the purchase of the furniture store and surrounding land at the corner of South Spring and Mill streets for office space while renovating the church and school on Spring Street at a cost of roughly $4 million. Under the plan, the entire campus would consolidate into the one location. The other plan would have consolidated the campus at an entirely new location outside of town and carried a price tag of $15 million. Beginning this fall, all classes will be consolidated onto their Spring Street campus. Construction will begin today in the schools courtyard on an addition that will include an elevator, new handicapped accessible bathrooms, offices and a conference room. Classrooms will be updated to accommodate pre-school, 4K and Kindergarten classes. Fr. Mike Erwin told the crowd of over 100 parishioners yesterday (Sun) that the addition has been needed for over 50 years and now is the time to bring the school back to one location. Over the decades the catholic churches in Beaver Dam have consolidated from three separate locations with different names into St. Katherine Drexel. Major construction on this phase of the plan is expected to be completed by the time student’s return in the fall.
