Itโs been decades since students have filed into classrooms at the historic Holy Rosary Institute campus. But a partnership between the siteโs development board and Prime Time Head Start will see that change soon.
Prime Time Head Start and Early Head Start is renovating the former cafeteria site on the Holy Rosary Institute campus to add five classrooms to the space. The classrooms will serve as a satellite campus to Prime Timeโs Lafayette Campus at Immaculate Heart of Mary, which is less than a mile away.
โTo be able to partner with an organization like prime time, who's got a stellar reputation in the work that they do with Head Start,โ said Holy Rosary Institute Redevelopment Board President Dustin Cravins, โand continue that that level of excellence and educating the underserved community of Lafayette is just a heartwarming feeling to be able to know those kids will be on that historic ground.โ
The Holy Rosary Institute on Carmel Street began in 1913 as an early vocational and technical school for Black girls and women. It began admitting Black boys and men in 1947. The main school closed in 1993.
Efforts to revitalize the 40-acre historical site began soon after the school closed and in 2010 the Holy Rosary Redevelopment Corporation was created with hopes of returning the campus to a place of prominence with educational, economic, social, cultural and spiritual developments.
โIt's very important and heartwarming to us that we can be part of bringing the campus back to life, bringing children back on campus and staying in the vein of education services,โ said Lafayette Prime Time Director Dena Thomas.
With the expansion at Holy Rosary, Prime Time will be able to seat an additional 64 students, bringing the total number of children it can serve to more than 300 across both campuses, director Dena Thomas said. The Immaculate Heart of Mary campus serves children from 6 weeks to 5 years old and the Holy Rosary campus will primarily serve 3- to 5-year-olds.
There is no firm timeline for when the campus will be ready to open.
Prime Time in Lafayette has a waiting list of families, Thomas said. By opening a second location, it will allow the organization, which is an initiative of the ถถา๕h Endowment of the Humanities, to work with more people.
โI'm very grateful and thankful that I am a part of the larger work to serve the community here in Acadiana and to provide services to families and children,โ Thomas said.
Those going by the campus will likely see more construction in the coming weeks as a playground is built, and concrete is poured for parking.
Cravins said other work on the site also will be more visible this year as there are intentions to โdevelop every inchโ on the campus. Power lines will be buried underground, and other landscaping changes and cleanup will happen soon.
The three-story building, which is the most recognizable on the site, has been gutted and the debris removed from the interior. A temporary canopy will be installed until a permanent roof can be installed.
The intention is for a master plan, created by the redevelopment group in partnership with the University of ถถา๕h at Lafayette, to be unveiled this year, Cravins said. And the community will be asked to weigh in on certain aspects.
โI know that it feels like it's going on forever, but I would tell you, it has been quite the undertaking,โ Cravins said. โThis partnership with Prime Time proves and shows the community, along with the work being done on the historic three-story building, that we're committed to serving that community that Rosary sits in, and that it's happening.โ