PARK SLOPE — The start of the school year will mark a turning point for St. Saviour Catholic Academy in Park Slope. This year will likely be the last one in which students have to spend their recreation periods playing on the closed-off street outside the building.
The academy, which teaches preschool to eighth grade, is planning a new project: a rooftop play area.
The academy, located at 701 Eighth Ave., hired an architectural firm, Matiz Architecture and Design, to draw up plans and is in the process of applying for city permits with an expectation of starting construction in June 2025. Lenae Guarna, chairperson of the academy’s board of trustees, said June was selected so the work can be completed over the summer break.
Other big and more immediate changes are also coming to the academy a bit sooner.
St. Saviour, which opened in 1909, hired a president for the first time in its history. Dean Fusto is new to the Diocese of Brooklyn but has years of experience in Catholic education, including serving as head of school at the School of the Blessed Sacrament on the Upper West Side.
The academy is also welcoming a new principal, Matthew Artigas, who comes to St. Saviour after serving as an assistant principal at Catholic schools in the Diocese of Rockville Centre.
Artigas is a product of Queens Catholic schools, including Our Lady of Lourdes School and Holy Cross High School. He earned his School Administration degree from St. John’s University after getting a BA and Master’s from Iona College in New Rochelle.
Guarna said that by hiring both a president and a principal, the academy is adopting the model employed by many Catholic high schools in the diocese. “We have a new principal who will keep our program moving and growing and evolving. And we have our president who’s outward facing, who’s getting the messaging out,” she explained.
Fusto outlined the division of labor while explaining that it is a model that made sense for the school.
“The principal has an incredible amount on their plate and we want to be able to make sure that he’s always focusing on the kids, on the program, on the curriculum, and all those pieces,” he said. “A president’s role is to be able to look at all the other things. There’s outreach, and that means knowing our partners in the community, making new partnerships.”
“I really look forward to working with our new president and the pastor of Saint Savior’s [Father Frank Spacek] to provide opportunities to our students going forward,” Artigas said.
Meanwhile, excitement is building for the rooftop play area.
The architectural plans call for the 4,000-square-foot play area surrounded by high protective fencing and egress walkways along the perimeter. There will be basketball hoops, an open area for kids to run around, and a garden to help students learn about nature and sustainability.
Guarna said $2 million has been raised to fund the project, and the academy is continuing its fundraising efforts.
The rooftop play area will mark quite a change for the students who have been having their recreation periods on Seventh Street or nearby Prospect Park because the academy does not have a schoolyard.
While they are “fortunate” to be able to take students to a sprawling public area like nearby Prospect Park, it can be cumbersome, Guarna said.
She explained that walking groups of 20-40 children back and forth to the park, “having a 40-minute period, and trying to get them there and back — all in time to go to their next class is a challenge.”
The rooftop play area “will create a much larger outdoor play space that will be within our building’s facade, as opposed to having to go outside to Seventh Street or using Prospect Park,” said communications director Althea Alvarez. “Many of the students are starting to express some major excitement about the project.”
Last semester, the academy held a PlaySpace Expo where second graders designed and built dioramas of what they wanted to see in the rooftop play area. The kids’ ideas included basketball hoops, swing sets, and slides.
While the play area promises fun for kids, Artigas said there are other benefits.
“We’re not just looking at it as a space for them to play at recess, but we’re looking at it as a space for education as well. We will utilize it for our enrichment classes,” he explained. “We’re going to allow teachers to take their students up there on given days to work on lessons outdoors. So the possibilities are endless.”