Holy Cross School
New Orleans, Louisiana
The project consists of the relocation of the entire Holy Cross School following the destruction of its former campus from Hurricane Katrina. The Holy Cross School has educated young men in the New Orleans community for over 125 years, adhering to the admonition of its founder, Father Basil Moreau, that "The mind shall not be educated at the expense of the heart." The School carried out this mission from its original campus in the Lower Ninth Ward until struck by Hurricane Katrina.
The purpose of the Project is to relocate the Holy Cross School from its original campus in the Lower Ninth Ward to a new location within the City of New Orleans. The original 16 acre campus, which had been occupied by the School for over 125 years, was inundated and completely destroyed by floodwaters during Hurricane Katrina. The School serves approximately 520 students in grades 5 through 12, and has essentially been operating in temporary quarters, including trailers, since the storm.
The new campus had the support of the local community, as evidenced in a Resolution of Support adopted by the Gentilly Neighborhood Association Presidents in November 2006. The Resolution notes that the Gentilly neighborhood was inundated with up to 10 feet of water for 21 days as a result of Katrina and that only 15% of households, businesses and institutions had returned to Gentilly at that time. By July of 2007, the neighborhood was described by the Times-Picayune as "a pattern of skeletal residences broken only by the occasional empty lot or construction project." The Resolution observes that the School would be the first major investment to be made in the community since the storm.
Several new campus buildings were completed in August 2009 in time for about 760 students to return to school with the library and administrative buildings to be completed shortly thereafter. This $80 million plus project was made possible through the use of a combination of Federal and State New Markets Tax Credits.