The Catholic Review

Divine Providence:
St. Frances Academy fulfills dream for gym, community center

By George P. Matysek, Jr.
The Catholic Review staff correspondent
May 3, 2001

More than 60 years after Lucien Gaudreau sketched the first designs for a gymnasium at St. Frances Academy in East Baltimore, the small, coeducational high school is finally getting its long-sought athletic facility. At the same time, the school’s tough inner-city neighborhood will be getting a safe place for children to play in a community center where programs will be offered to boost the education and welfare of the people of Brentwood Village.

Literally in the shadow of the Maryland State Penitentiary, school leaders joined Bishop Gordon D. Bennett, S.J., urban vicar, in breaking ground for the new 33,000-square-foot community center April 27 during a boisterous ceremony attended by several hundred supporters.

Curious residents peeked out of crumbling row-homes tagged with graffiti as St. Frances celebrated its achievement with spirited Gospel music and New Orleans-style parade dancing.

"Everything you see in this neighborhood is knocked down and abandoned," said Sister John Francis Schilling, O.S.P., principal of the 275-student school. "In the last 50 years, the only thing new has been expanding the penitentiary. We’re sending an important signal that we’re here to stay, and we mean to revitalize this community."

Designed by William L. Gaudreau Sr., the son of the project’s original 1940 architect, the community center will consist of a gym and two floors of multipurpose rooms housing computer labs and classrooms.

With the help of a $1.2 million grant from the state of Maryland, St. Frances has already raised nearly all the money it will need to complete the $5 million center. The school is trying to raise an additional $5 million for an endowment fund that will provide tuition assistance and support to teachers.

Although St. Frances has never had a gym of its own, the school has become a powerhouse in basketball in recent years. Both the boys’ and girls’ teams often dominate the competition and win local championships. Finally getting their own facility will provide much relief for teams that are currently forced to practice at up to five different sites a week.

"When people come in from Loyola and Calvert Hall, they’ll hear those prisoners banging on the walls for us," the principal joked. "I’ll bet the refs treat us differently after that – if they don’t they might not get out of here."

During the groundbreaking ceremonies, Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend praised St. Frances Academy for sending more than 95 percent of its graduates to college each year. She said the school is special to her because her father, the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, visited the Oblate Sisters of Providence at the Mount Providence Junior College in Arbutus 1966.

"My father said too often the school, the college or the university seem remote and inaccessible to the poor," Lt. Gov. Townsend said. "St. Frances is neither remote nor inaccessible nor too far away from those who need it most."

Because many St. Frances students come from difficult family situations that include problems with drugs, alcohol and violence, the school provides more than 120 students with weekly counseling sessions with nine professional counselors.

Although plans have not yet been finalized as to what specific programs will be offered in the community center for residents, Sister John Francis said they will likely include after-school tutoring, senior outreach and alcohol and substance abuse prevention and treatment efforts.

The principal noted that the academy’s enrollment has more than doubled since 1993 – with 35 students currently on a waiting list for admission. With the added classrooms provided by the community center, she said the school expects to grow to a new capacity of 325 students.

Struever Brothers Eccles and Rouse is building the structure on a vacant lot adjacent to the school. It is expected to be finished by January.

Sister Reginald Gerdes, O.S.P., a former principal of the school, said the Oblates who spent more than 170 years laboring to serve the African American community at St. Frances Academy would be very proud of what the school is doing today to secure its future.

"In the true spirit of a doctrine in the Catholic Church we call the communion of saints, I know that they’re smiling down on us, and they’re saying, ‘Right on girls, right on!’" Sister Reginald said. "And to this I say, ‘Amen!’"