FLUSHING — As one school year winds down at Holy Cross High School, anticipation is already growing for the next, as sometime this fall, the school expects to have a new Arts, Technology and Athletics Center.

The $8 million, 11,000-square-foot center, which will stand alongside the current school building, is still under construction on the north side of the Flushing campus. 

“This is an exciting time for the Holy Cross community,” said Holy Cross President Mark Mongelluzzo, a 1992 graduate of the school. “It’s the first major expansion we’ve done since our school was founded 70 years ago.” 

The two-story center, which Mongelluzzo said is expected to open in October or November, will include computer science and robotics labs, as well as art and dance studios. The 1,200-square-foot dance studio, which will contain a full-length mirror and a ballet barre, will double as a performance space. The new building will also have a 1,500-square-foot fitness center.

Asked how the building aligns with the school’s mission, Mongelluzzo invoked the name of Blessed Basil Moreau, the 18th-century French priest who established the Congregation of Holy Cross, which founded Holy Cross High School in 1955.

“He was famous for saying, ‘How we educate the mind will change with the times. How we cultivate the heart will remain timeless.’ This building is how Holy Cross is changing with the times,” Mongelluzzo said.

The school is commissioning two statues — one of Blessed Basil Moreau and the other of St. André Bessette, a lay brother of the Congregation of Holy Cross known for his devotion to St. Joseph, to be erected on the first floor of the new building in a nod to the school’s spiritual foundations.

“This building is going to offer us opportunities to expand our curriculum and give our students so much more in terms of science and technology and even fitness and performing arts,” Mongelluzzo said. He noted, for example, that the school plans to add its own dance curriculum once the new building opens. 

Joseph Geraci, the school’s vice president for advancement, said he hopes the new building will encourage students to attend Holy Cross High School. For most of its history, Holy Cross was an all-boys school before transitioning to co-ed in 2018. 

“I think one of the great aspects of this building is that it’s going to attract more girls to the school because we are going to be able to offer things to these young women that we’ve never had here in the school — like dance and the expansion of our performing arts program,” Geraci said. “I think that’s going to be a great opportunity for us.”