Downtown Montessori acquires St. Augustine building

Downtown Montessori Academy is planting its roots in the Bay View community after purchasing the building it has rented for the past five years. See Map

“We have continued to grow because of the parents. It’s not an island; it’s the community that created this place,” said school principal Virginia Flynn.

The academy serves children age three through eighth grade and has 165 students this year. School officials hope to see that number grow to 200 students in future years. Just 66 students were enrolled at Downtown Montessori during its first year in Bay View.

School officials and the trustees of St. Augustine Catholic Church completed the sale of the building located at 2507 S. Graham St. on Nov. 7. Before moving into the current location in 2005, DMA was previously located at 2319 E. Kenwood Ave., on Milwaukee’s East Side.

Flynn said the purchase has been a long process, which started out with just an idea. “After the first couple of years [of renting], that’s when we posed the question,” she said.

Flynn said school officials purchased the building for approximately $280,000.

“The fact that they bought the building and it’s going to be there for an extended period is awesome.”
—Jennie Paolantonio, whose son attends second grade at DMA

St. Augustine Church still owns the surrounding property and both parties share the parking lot. DMA officials had some money saved for the purchase of a building, but also had to apply for loans with the help of a nonprofit financial institution. DMA worked with IFF, formerly known as the Illinois Facilities Fund, an organization that focuses on strengthening nonprofits by providing affordable lending and real estate consulting. “That’s who we worked with directly in applying for loans and evaluating the options for other spaces in the community,” Flynn said.

A study was conducted to evaluate all of the possible purchasing options, according to Ian Spanic, president of DMA’s board of directors. He said the Milwaukee Public Schools district does not sell buildings to non-MPS schools, so a vacant property such as the old Dover Street school building nearby was not an option.

“I know that they really like being there and are very comfortable with the building,” said Father Jan Kieliszewski, pastor of St. Augustine. Still, the sale of the school building is bittersweet for church trustees because it was the first building the parish built in 1888.

Kieliszewski said the sale is a happy one for parish members who know that the facility is being used for educational purposes. Right now, the church does not have plans for the funds received in the sale.

St. Augustine trustees are in the process of handing over complete control of the building to DMA officials, which includes splitting the electric and heat into two separate accounts for the church and school.

“First thing we have to do is have heat and electric up to date,” Flynn said. School officials are anticipating having control of the heat and electricity by the beginning of December.

“Everything else we want to do and create—we’ve already been looking at ideas and planning—will come as we can afford,” she said. Replacing the windows and upgrading the flooring are a few items on the to-do list. All of the improvements will have the goal of creating an ideal learning environment for students.

Any additions or upgrades to the school will also focus on being environmentally friendly. DMA became a “green school” in 2007 as certified by the state of Wisconsin.

Parents led the effort to get the school its green certification, which required the state to evaluate the building. The school needed to meet requirements that varied from using a specific type of light bulb, washing windows a certain way, to how they handled garbage and recycling.

The real estate purchase by DMA is wonderful news to many parents in the school community. “I think it’s great, I’m really happy that it’s going to be in one location,” said Jennie Paolantonio, whose son attends second grade at DMA.

The news of the sale brought up the question of space for students in the years to come. “My concern is that if the students that are there in lower elementary continue through upper elementary, will there be enough room?” Paolantonio said. “The fact that they bought the building and it’s going to be there for an extended period is awesome.”

Paolantonio said now that there is stable ground for the school to grow on, she hopes to see DMA expand by offering some new things for students. “Maybe even have some more extracurricular activities and after-school hours, [that] would be nice.”

For school officials, the biggest advantage to purchasing a building is the ability to settle down and plant roots in the community, for the community. “Stability and security for the families and the staff, that’s probably one of the keys,” Flynn said. “It gives us the opportunity to create the environment for a child that we would consider important.”

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