Mercy Academy, 5801 Fegenbush Lane, rang in the new year by adding five and a half acres of land to its 24-acre campus.
On Dec. 21, Mercy closed on the land adjacent to the campus in an effort to address some practical issues, said Becky Montague, the school’s president.
“So often schools become landlocked. The additional acreage will be valuable as Mercy continues to grow,” she said.
Montague, a member of Mercy’s class of 1991, was a student when the school was located on Broadway in downtown Louisville.
She said she “adored that building and all its 100-year-old quirks, but as a Mercy parent, our campus is everything I want for my daughter — an aspiring engineer — and all of our 500 students.” Mercy moved to its Fegenbush location in 2007.
The new acreage will prevent the school from becoming landlocked and allow it to grow, she noted. The Sisters of Mercy — who sponsor the school — agree, and they were immediately supportive of the purchase, she said.
While there are no immediate plans to develop the land, Mercy’s teachers and coaches are already “imagining clever and innovative uses for the additional acreage including engineering and chemistry class experiments on soil and waterways and rocket launches,” she said.
Mercy started its STEM program (science, technology, engineering and math) in 2014 and in 2016 became the first all-girl school in the nation to receive STEM certification.
“Much like our initial 24 acres provided unimaginable possibilities, these additional acres create that same feeling of potential and inspiration. It allows our nationally-recognized faculty to ask ‘what if’ and not have the constraints of space,” said Montague.
She also noted that all the professionals who assisted the school in purchasing the land were Mercy alumna. Rhonda Karageorge, a real estate executive; Peggy Hagerty Duffy, an engineer; and Emily Ziegler, an attorney, are a “testament to the knowledge and ambition that Mercy Academy inspires in all our students,” Montague said.
