Local News
High school for underserved youth moving to donated building Downtown
Cristo Rey Atlanta Jesuit High School will move from its Midtown location into a donated Downtown building in 2017. (Rendering from Robertson Loia Roof, PC)
The 380 students who attend Cristo Rey Atlanta Jesuit High School do not stand in a cafeteria line at lunchtime, an experience that is par for the course for most teenagers.
Instead, administrators take two trips across the street to a small cafe, where they pick up sandwiches or pasta or tacos — if it's taco day — and walk it back to the school.
The reason: The high school, which only accepts students from low income families, has no kitchen. Nor does it have a gym, an auditorium, art and music rooms or science labs.
But all of that will change next year. The school will move from the three-story Midtown building it occupies now, to a seven-story building in Downtown Atlanta that was donated by developer Jim Cumming.
The Midtown location of the Jesuit-run institution was never intended to be permanent, as it wasn't big enough, and the Archdiocese of Atlanta gave the school a five-year lease, according to President Bill Garrett. The school opened in July 2014 with a freshman class, and has added a new class each year.
Cristo Rey is a regional school with students coming from 42 cities across 10 counties — including Cobb, Gwinnett and DeKalb — so Garrett said it was critical for the new location to be on a MARTA line.
Once renovated, the former Oxford Industries building at 222 Piedmont Ave. NE will be able to accommodate the 550 students who are expected at full enrollment. The design-build team for the project consists of Robertson Loia Roof, PC and Benning Construction Co.
Cristo Rey has a unique business model, in which the majority of the students' tuition is underwritten by their participation in a corporate work study.
"The way we work is that students essentially go to school four days a week and go to work one day a week,” Garrett said. "Our kids walk in there wide-eyed, they only come to work five days a month, so they come with enthusiasm and add a lot of vitality to the workplace."
Participating companies — a selection that Garrett calls the "who's who of corporate Atlanta" including Coca-Cola, UPS, Delta and Home Depot — pay the school a fee in exchange for the students' work.
"It's a great model," Garrett said.
