AN EXCITING TIME

There’s (almost) a new school in town.  

After the Albany Diocesan School Board announced plans in November to merge Catholic Central High School in Troy with St. Ambrose School in Latham to form Catholic Central School, school faculty, parents and students are now starting to prepare for what will be the first regional Catholic school for pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.

The new school will expand off of St. Ambrose’s current 19-acre campus, which houses both St. Ambrose Parish and the school buildings. The combined elementary, middle and high school is slated to open for the 2022-23 school year. 

Off the heels of the announcement, families across both schools were curious about the merger, wondering what it meant for students and how a combined school would better serve all of the needs of the Catholic school community. 

“Change is hard but sometimes with change, you have things you’d never expect,” said Maureen Lammon, a CCHS parent and girls lacrosse coach for the school. Lammon and her husband, Dave, have had two of their three children go through Catholic Central High School. Their youngest, Gabriel, is a senior and graduating in the spring. 

“Both my parents are 1959 graduates (of Catholic Central High School) too,” said David Lammon. “It’s sad to see them leave Troy because of the history … but we understand they’re trying to make a new start.”

Catholic Central School leaders held a Parents Night last month at the St. Ambrose Church and Parish Center to discuss the logistics of the new school. Speakers for the night included Giovanni Virgiglio, superintendent of Catholic Schools; Lily Spera, principal of St. Ambrose School; Chris Signor, principal of Catholic Central High School; and Father Brian Kelly, pastor of St. Ambrose Church. 

“I am nothing but excited about this,” said Father Kelly in a video recording of the school’s Parents Night. “We see the church as the heart of the new school. I think that’s really important.” 

Mark Ayotte, parent of two students entering Catholic Central School, said that the Parents Night “made my daughter feel a lot better” about entering the new school. Ayotte’s daughter, Samantha, will be a senior in the fall, and his son, Ethan, will be a sophomore. While leaving the old campus was “bittersweet,” Ayotte knows this is a step in the right direction.

“I was a previous board member of Catholic High, so I’ve seen the change coming,” he said. Ayotte served on the school board until last year when he joined the Futures Committee, a planning team for Catholic Central School.

All 220 Catholic Central High School students will initially be stationed inside of St. Ambrose’s current 20,500-square-foot school building for the 2022-23 school year while building expansions are being constructed. Renovations are also being done in the existing building, including a new preschool center, new elementary classrooms, and new science labs and bathrooms for the high school. The school’s expansion plan includes adding 18 classrooms, a laboratory and a gymnasium.

In the meantime, privacy and separation of the lower and upper classes is a priority for school leaders.

“All 220 students from Catholic Central High School can fit in the already existing building,” Signor said in the video’s opening remarks. “Grades 6-12 will be secluded in the 300 and 400 wings of the current building with separate parking spaces, a separate parking lot and a separate entrance for the new students.”

The Catholic Central High principal is excited for his students to reap the benefits of the new, expanded campus. Middle- and high-school students will be able to enjoy having a church directly affiliated with their school and participate with the St. Ambrose community for Mass or volunteer in the food pantry. 

“My favorite part of being here is having a school,” Father Kelly added. “One of my favorite parts is when we have school Mass. I always try to ask questions and someone always has their arm up ready to answer the question, sometimes even before I ask the question!”

For sports, Catholic Central School students will be able to participate in intramural soccer or CYO basketball, options that weren’t logistically possible at the previous high school location. Even for the existing high-school sports, Catholic Central School will offer more field space for students to practice outdoors. At the Lansingburgh campus, all outdoor sports shared a single field. The excess foot traffic on the turf, combined with the hassle of scheduling practice times, will no longer be an issue at the Latham campus. 

“It’s very exciting,” said Maureen Lammon. “It’ll be nice to have the opportunity to have multiple fields so kids can practice at the same time and you’re not waiting.”

High school students will also have the option to intern in elementary classrooms, and the combined school will also offer parents the option to join a more vibrant PTO and volunteer for activities within the school. 

St. Ambrose families will get one of the biggest perks of all: having a school their children can grow up in from elementary school into high school.

“What we’re hearing from elementary families is that they’ve been wanting this for years,” Signor said in an interview with The Evangelist. “They want a place they can send their 3-year-old and can graduate as an 18-year-old. Although the Catholic Central High School families are excited, it’s really St. Ambrose families who see the benefit of staying in their community.”

Signor added that the immediate response from the public to the new school has been “very exciting.” 

“Lots of people are trying to register already. We’re re-registering existing families now and then once we begin opening up for outside families, which will be soon, we’ll determine whether or not we’ll have a waiting list.” Signor noted. “That's probably the first time either school has had a waiting list in decades.”

Above all, both schools and all families will be a part of continuing the growth of Catholic education for their children and their community. 

“This is giving kids a chance to go to an institution as I went to, that has a tight-knit community and family feel,” Ayotte said. “These are experiences that at such a young age you can take with you for the rest of your life.”

“(Catholic schooling) offers the values that we hold important,” Maureen Lammon said. “Obviously we try to teach those things here but to have those reinforced outside the home, and to be surrounded with other kids with similar values, it’s been a culture that’s been invaluable for all our children.”

For more information about the school, head to catholiccentralschool.org.

RELATED STORIES:

TIME TO CELEBRATE: Giovanni Virgiglio, diocesan chancellor and superintendent of schools, shares his love for Catholic Schools Week: https://evangelist.org/Content/Default/Homepage-Rotator/Article/A-TIME-TO-CELEBRATE-/-3/141/29560

COMMUNITY FOR ALL: All Saints Catholic Academy principal provides ‘a community for all’: https://evangelist.org/Content/Default/Homepage-Rotator/Article/-A-COMMUNITY-FOR-ALL/-3/141/29561

EXTRA MILE: St. Peter’s teacher goes above and beyond for her students https://evangelist.org/Content/Default/Homepage-Rotator/Article/THE-EXTRA-MILE/-3/141/29562

BORN TO TEACH: Noreen Harris at St. Mary’s-St. Alphonsus School brings her love for teaching to work each day: https://evangelist.org/Content/Default/Features/Article/BORN-TO-TEACH/-3/136/29564

CSW22: What is Catholic Schools Week?: https://evangelist.org/Content/More-top-stories/More-top-stories/Article/CATHOLIC-SCHOOLS-WEEK-2022/3/138/29565