Devils Lake school breaks ground for new chapel and learning center

Sherry Kurtz, music teacher at St. Joseph’s Elementary/St. Mary’s Academy Catholic School in Devils Lake, loves to help her students make a joyful sound each week at the all school Mass. But for the last two years she says it has been hard trying to worship in a gymnasium that’s not well suited for the celebration of the Eucharist. Soon, all that will change.

On May 18, St. Joseph’s Elementary/St. Mary’s Academy broke ground on a new facility large enough to allow all 190 students to attend Mass together. The $2.5 million project will include St. Mary’s Academy Chapel and the St. Joseph Learning Center.

With the addition of seventh and eighth grade classes to the Pre-K through sixth grade school the last two years, Mass had to be moved into the gym to accommodate all of the students at one time. The new chapel will be able to hold up to 250 students, so there’s room to grow for the future as well.

The new learning resource center will house a library and a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) lab, which will give students the technological tools they need for a future in their chosen career fields.



A committee formed to secure funding for the project was able to raise the entire amount in just two years. St. Joseph Catholic School students raised $5,000 of that amount by making and selling rosaries and other hand-made religious items.

During his homily at the Mass that followed the official groundbreaking, Bishop Folda gave thanks to God and all those who made the day possible.

“The addition of a new chapel and learning center at St. Joseph School is a testimony to the fact that the heart of this school is Jesus himself,” said Bishop Folda. “He is the reason this school exists, and we seek only to know him and love him more fully through this great endeavor now beginning.”

Construction on the new addition will get underway in early August, and should be completed by the start of the 2022–23 school year.