New Seton Catholic High rising

Athletes at Seton Catholic College Preparatory High School will finally have home-court advantage when their new school opens next fall.

Although the school first opened seven years ago, it has been leasing a building with no athletic facilities except for a small weight room. It’s had to lease gyms and athletic fields for games. The school has no locker room, so students wait in line to change for sports in the restrooms. There are no showers.

When Seton Catholic opens its new building currently under construction, it will have regulation football/soccer fields in front of the school and a regulation track-and-field facility behind the school.

The new school is 44,000 square feet. That’s three times larger than the current leased space.

It is being built in phases. The first phase of construction will build 12 classrooms that can house 250 students. In the second phase, to be built as needed, a two-story classroom building and auxiliary gym will bring the classroom total to 20 and allow for 500 students.

“For the first time, to have your own facilities, it’s a big deal for the kids,” said Ed Little, the school’s founding president and principal. “It’s a big deal for us.”

Seton Catholic has begun a capital campaign to raise $20 million over five years. About $10 million will pay for the new building. The other half will pay for new programs and student scholarships. To date, it’s raised $7.8 million.

When the school first opened, it had 38 students. Now the 165 students and 25 staff are crammed to capacity.

Although the interior still isn’t framed out, Little pointed out the location of the 3,000 square foot STEM Center with two classrooms and state-of-the-art wet and dry labs. Seton Catholic is hiring two STEM teachers and adding its first Robotics and Engineering classes next year.

Students will be able to take STEM classes all four years. Whether it’s AP chemistry, environmental science, calculus or physics, “it all blends together in the STEM program and will be integrated across curriculum,” Little said. “A lot of our kids go to University of Portland. Our teachers will work with STEM professors at U of P to ensure our kids are prepared for college.”

A fine arts classroom will allow students to explore painting, design and sculpture.

For the first time, drama will be an elective class rather than an extracurricular activity. A 300-seat chapel can be sectioned off to provide performance space for music and drama. In the past, school groups performed in leased spaces in churches or even the Elks Lodge.

Although annual tuition is steep — $12,255 next year, Little said 59 percent of Seton students receive some sort of tuition assistance.

Little said 100 percent of the school’s seniors graduate on time, and 99 percent attend four-year colleges and universities.

It’s Washington’s only Catholic high school south of Olympia. Providence Academy shuttered after the 1966 class graduated. Before Seton opened, Clark County students who wanted to attend a Catholic high school had to enroll at one of several in Portland. Each year, Seton Catholic picks up more local students from those schools. About half of the students are Catholic.

“There’s a niche for your own, homegrown Catholic high school,” Little said.

Friday is the last day of school at Seton Catholic. After the students leave, Little and his staff members will have a retreat to close the building. Then everything in the school will be packed into pods to be stored over the summer.

The new building will open next school year on Sept. 12.

“Our students are used to making do,” Little said. “Now our kids are so excited to have this new school. They’ll appreciate it so much more.”