NEWBURY TOWNSHIP, Ohio — St. Helen School in Newbury Township broke ground on a $7.7 million renovation and expansion project that has been seven years in the making.
Campaign coordinator Hank Milnark said the project marks the real beginning for the school's future, renovating 11,720 square feet and adding another 14,000 square feet.
"There'll be six new classrooms, renovating several other classrooms; we’ll have a new library, a maker space," Milnark said.
The changes also include tearing down a portable classroom building that Fr. Jay McPhillips estimates has been on the property for about 40 years.
By the time the project is finished, the school will be 80% new.
Principal Steve Martin, an alumnus, admitted it's a long time coming.
"Currently, we maximize every square inch of the building to the point some of our offices are in closets until the new building is done," Martin said.
"In a lot of way in the last 35 years, very little has changed," he said.
Catholic schools see shift in enrollment and funding
From 2013 to 2023, the National Catholic Educational Association reported a 14% decline in Catholic school enrollment nationwide.
However, the Diocese of Cleveland is currently at an eight-year high, with more than 40,000 students enrolled this year.
Fr. Jay McPhillips points to the expansion of Ohio's EdChoice program and the Angel Scholarship Fund as a driving force behind the project. Launched in 2022, the Angel Scholarship Fund is a tax credit program that allows donors to turn their tax liability into tuition assistance for Catholic school students.
"It’s huge," McPhillips said. "Our numbers—we were really struggling numbers-wise. Since the EdChoice program and Angel Fund, we were able to go to a zero commitment tuition from our parents as long as they applied for the Angel Fund and EdChoice and that has really helped keep our numbers up."
St. Helen School hopes to move into the new space in a year and said the project should allow them to increase enrollment while still maintaining one classroom per grade.
Diocese of Cleveland sees increase in adults becoming Catholic
With Holy Week underway, the Diocese of Cleveland is also experiencing a surge in new members, welcoming 1,029 people into the Catholic Church during the Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion.
That's more than double the number of conversions seen a decade ago. In 2016, 415 people in 72 parishes went through the conversion process. That number decreased to 358 people in 61 parishes in 2020, which experts attribute to the pandemic.
Since then, growth has been steady, with 465 conversions in 2023, 542 in 2024, and 812 in 2025.
Clay LePard is the Ashtabula, Geauga and Portage counties reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow him on X @ClayLePard, on Facebook ClayLePardTV or email him at Clay.LePard@wews.com.
