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Ground broken at Sacred Heart By Kelly W. Brown As soon as the VIPs, including Bishop Thomas Rodi of Diocese of Biloxi, the Rev. Ken Ramon-Landry and architect Larry Albert had turned dirt with their gold-painted ceremonial shovels, it was the kids' turn. "If the chronologically gifted, shall we say, will move away then the younger people can come forward," said the bishop, and come forward they did. Shovels, ranging from the green plastic variety to those much larger than the kids that wielded them were all applied to the ground on Saturday where the new Sacred Heart School cafeteria will someday stand. The cafeteria will seat 320 students at once; also added will be 15 new classrooms, including a high school library, computer lab and a science lab. The ground breaking comes after a capital drive that has already raised $3 million of the $4 million goal, Development Director Tammy Martin said. The drive kicked off in November. Besides improvements at the school, the funds will build a new community center in west Hattiesburg. School officials said they hope the new buildings will be open by August for the start of the 2007-2008 school year. "I'm ecstatic," said Susan Melancon, the dietitian for Sacred Heart. "The cafeteria we have now is very, very, very old. We meet the nutritional needs of our students right now, but we can't seat everyone." She is excited, she said, to "expand our menu and do other things." Veronica Palenski, a fifth-grader at Sacred Heart, said she is also excited about the expanded seating. "I think it's going to really improve the school and make everything a lot nicer," she said. The current cafeteria, she said, is "OK, but I'd like to have it bigger so we could have earlier lunchtimes." The Rev. Tommy Conway of St. Thomas Aquinas Church said he was very pleased with the events of the day. "It's an absolutely fantastic day for Sacred Heart School ... and for the Catholic community of Hattiesburg," he said. "It's a good day for downtown Hattiesburg to know that Sacred Heart is staying right here." |