For years, Gus Ramirez wanted to replicate the success of St. Augustine Preparatory Academy — the choice school he created on Milwaukee’s south side — on the city’s north side.
But it wasn’t until state legislators gave private schools their largest funding boost in history that Ramirez decided to go forward with his plans.
On Tuesday, Ramirez said he’s hoping to open Augustine Prep’s north side campus in August 2025 at the former Cardinal Stritch University campus in Fox Point.
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The Ramirez Family Foundation announced it purchased the campus for $24 million on July 24, just two weeks after Gov. Tony Evers signed the biennium budget increasing taxpayer funding for private choice schools.
Under the budget, annual funding for voucher schools will increase from $8,400 per student to $9,500 for elementary school students and from $9,045 to $12,000 for high school students.
“We had a contact all ready to go and signed up, and I delivered it only when the new funding formula was created and passed,” Ramirez said. “Otherwise, we would have been facing a gap of funding of well over $10 million with the two schools and we just couldn’t afford that.”
Abby Andrietsch, Ramirez’s daughter, school president and CEO of Augustine Prep, said the school spends between $12,000 and $13,000 per student. When school starts on Thursday at the south side campus, there will be about 1,900 pre-K through 12th grade students from the Milwaukee area.
The money funds a staff that includes eight school social workers, a behavior health specialist, year-round sports, a school nurse and extracurricular activities like school plays.
Last school year, St. Augustine received nearly $13.1 million in state funds through the school choice program.
“Since we started, we have very purposefully invested in our students because we believe in the holistic support that we do,” Andrietsch said. “Academic excellence is core; it’s something we don’t compromise on. And we know that our kids are best served if we think about how we develop them as a whole.”
Augustine Prep has been recognized for its success since opening in 2017. On Department of Public Instruction report cards, the school has received five stars and “significantly exceeding expectations,” the state’s highest mark, for the last two years.
Students from the three graduating classes have received $21.5 million in scholarships. Nearly all — 99 percent — of the students do not pay tuition.
South side school breaks ground, plans for north side campus move forward
Augustine Prep opened a second, $49 million building Tuesday to expand its capacity to serve 900 more students.
The new 123,000-square-foot building will increase capacity at the school to 2,400 students, making it the largest single-campus school in Milwaukee.
About 95 percent of the school’s students are Hispanic, Andrietsch said. But they represent about 35 different cultures.
Andrietsch said about 8 percent of the population are students with disabilities.
The Ramirez family is hoping to grow Augustine Prep to 5,000 students at both campuses when the north side location opens in 2025.
Ramirez said Cardinal Stritch dorms are currently being demolished and work is being done on athletic facilities with the goal of starting programing next summer.
He hopes the campus is about 25 percent tuition based. Demographics at that school will likely be mostly a mixture of Black and white students.
With a diverse student body at the south side and north side campuses, the school plans to combine sports teams and arts groups so students aren’t segregated.
“We think we can build a school with a diverse student body, and through that interaction, they’ll gain,” Ramirez said. “Even the high performing schools are usually dominated by one race. That’s not good. Our Black students don’t know white or Hispanic students. And it becomes an adversarial relationship, and we want to stop that.”
Augustine Prep not for everyone
Ramirez said his children, including Andrietsch, all went to public school in Brookfield, but he would not send children to “woke” public schools today.
He told reporters on Tuesday he knows his school may not be for everyone, but he wants to be honest and transparent about the faith elements in all subjects.
“We hold firm to the biblical description of family at this school,” Ramirez said. “That doesn’t mean all teachers and all staff are part of a nuclear family, but we strongly believe a nuclear family generates a lot better student outcomes because it’s support.”
Ramirez went on to say that data shows only 20 to 30 percent of children living on the north side of Milwaukee have a mother and father present in their homes.
“Some will say that we’re too conservative, but for the most part, our teachers are just aligned with scripture,” Ramirez said. “(We) recognize that all that is happening in education today — funding issues, the world coming into our schools, parents and staff arguing about curriculum. There’s just a lot of stuff going on that hadn’t existed in the past. In all likelihood in the short term, that’s going to make schools worse.”
When asked to elaborate more on the “wokeness” of schools, Andrietsch interrupted her father to say Augustine Prep is purposeful about not bringing culture wars into the school.
Andrietsch added that the dynamics of homes have changed in all communities — suburban and urban.
“We have kids from all environments here and we do not require our kids or families to sign a statement of faith to come here,” Andrietsch said. “We are purposeful in our team and building of team and are unapologetic in who we are as a school.”
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