St. Marcus School announced today the official purchase of the former Centro Educacional Aurora Weier Center, which is located four blocks north of St. Marcus on Center Street between Hubbard and Richards Streets at 2669 N. Richards Street.
St. Marcus opened its doors at the second site on September 2nd, 2014, through a lease arrangement serving as its Early Childhood Center (ECC). The second site currently serves 100 new children, ages three through six. (K3-1st grades) Today, St. Marcus serves a total of 840 students between two campuses. 740 students (K3-8th grades) at it’s main campus located at 2215 N Palmer Street, Milwaukee and 100 students at the ECC at 2669 N. Richards Street, Milwaukee.
The newly acquired building and lot, will now allow a full site feasibility study to be conducted with a vision to serve as another community resource facility for school families and neighborhood residents. This site will continue to expand and grow to serve over 250 students from three year olds to 4th graders over the next three years. This will allow St. Marcus to serve over 1,000 students and their families between both campuses by 2017-2018.
The acquisition of the Centro Educacional Aurora Weier Center officially closed on Thursday, December 4, 2014.
The former Aurora Weier building was once a public swimming facility and then a site of a small high school that served “at risk” students that operated through a charter with Milwaukee Public Schools. It was the brainchild of Aurora Weier, who saw education as the solution for many of the problems impacting Latino communities. She created the enrichment center in 1984 at the site of the former Natatorium, which was closed since 1977. Only two and a half months after its opening, Aurora was murdered by a fellow community leader. Aurora’s husband then took on the role to serve as the Director, and the center was renamed the Aurora Weier Educational Center to honor her drive and dedication to the Latino community.
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