Winter isn’t even over, but on Cleveland’s near-west side, they’re thinking Fall—when St. Ignatius High School will add a middle school with sixth-though-eighth grades by turning a former parish on the edge of campus into an academy.
Father Ray Guiao, the school's president, says it was the vision of the late president Father Robert Welsh, and the school will bear Welsh's name.
"Our mission has always been about paying attention to and serving the needs of those on the margins," Guiao said. "That’s the spirit out of which we are operating the Welsh Academy."
To get in, boys must be low-income and live in Cleveland or an inner suburb. Unlike the $17,000 a year charged for the high school, the Welsh Academy will be free, with the day beginning at 7:30 a.m. at breakfast and ending at 5:30 p.m. While it's a Catholic school, all religions are welcome.
"What is really important about what we’re going to be doing is helping boys from the city feel like they belong, and that they can achieve these great things that I think so many of us sometimes take for granted," Welsh Academy principal Mary Ann Vogel said.
And though getting into the high school isn’t guaranteed, there is a better chance for the kind of student who long deserved the opportunity, who administrators say has as much to give as they’ll ever get.
"I think a lot of people are thinking that Ignatius will change these boys," St. Ignatius graduate De'Shaun Adair said. "But I think, more than anything, that the boys are going to come and they’re going to change the life of St. Ignatius High School."
Each class will be capped at 25 students and will start with just the sixth graders in August. Administrators are now actively trying to attract students for that class and are holding open houses Mar. 3 from 2-4 p.m. and Mar. 20 from 4-6 p.m. at the high school.