St. John’s Catholic Prep plans move to new campus in Frederick County

St. John’s Catholic Prep in Frederick has announced it will be moving to the campus of St. Thomas More Academy in Buckeystown. St. Thomas More will move to a yet to be determined site in Frederick County.

According a new release from St. John’s, the two schools have entered into a contract that will move the location of both schools.

St. John’s has entered into a contract with St. Thomas More to purchase its building and property. According to the news release, the sale allows each school to move to a building more suitable for their respective sizes and represents a positive development for both communities.

“St. John’s is very grateful to St. Thomas More Academy for this opportunity,” Greg Harraka, chairman of the board of directors at St. John’s, said in the news release. “The board is extremely excited and looks forward to moving to its new facility in order to meet the challenges of providing a vibrant, values-based Roman Catholic education for the 21st century for our students from Maryland, Northern Virginia and West Virginia.”

The current St. Thomas More Academy building will be modified and expanded to accommodate 400 high school students initially and will eventually expand to be able to serve 500 students.

St. John’s will begin the 2012-2013 school year at its new location.

In December 2005, St. John’s Catholic Prep purchased a 46-acre tract of land, adjacent to St. Thomas More Academy, to build its new campus. The St. John’s campus will now be 67 acres and allow for more expanded athletic fields and a stadium.

The news release said St. John’s “has reached a pivotal point where it can no longer meet the enrollment needs or escalating academic criteria for its students within the existing, aging facilities.”

The release said its Prospect Hall property will be sold to help support the funding for the new forward-thinking and technology-enriched academic campus. St. John’s is trying to meet the educational needs of the expanding Frederick area. For the past few years, St. John’s said it has “experienced a robust increase in enrollment, as well as a substantial increase in its annual fundraising programs.”