**There was a mistake in the video. The school will be kindergarten through 12th grade.**
There will once again be a Catholic school in the city of St. Martinville.
Maison Duchamp will soon be turned into a kindergarten through eighth grade independent catholic school.
This comes nearly ten years after the diocese closed the Trinity Catholic School in 2015 due to low enrollment.
Conque said nearly 20 students have already applied for fall enrollment.
"We've had about 160 students express interest in the school and now's the time that that interest will become application and enrollment,” Maris Stella Classical Academy Board of Directors President Deacon Adam Conque said.
Conque said the school has been working with the city on the proposed school property.
The city council recently passed a motion to go forward with forward with the lease agreement as well as building inspections.
The building will have four classrooms for upperclassmen and serve as the headquarters.
"We anticipate to house our older students at the Maison Duchamp, but our younger students pre-k, kindergarten and first grade on campus at St. Martin de Tours Church where the old Trinity campus is still in place and fully operational,” Conque said.
Conque said the school will have a "classical curriculum."
"That is reading the great texts that have built our civilization, having hands on encounters with the students with nature,” Conque said.
“So, math and science are not taught though textbooks or labs only but actually outside encountering nature directly."
While also incorporating local culture in everyday learning.
“Our Catholic faith is gonna live in everything we do and will be built into every aspect of the school,” Conque said.
“But also, within the very local Cajun and Creole culture we find here in St. Martinville. So, all three elements Catholic, classical and Cajun Creole will inform everything we do here at Maris Stella Classical Academy.”
George Armbruster is a parishioner at St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church from Lafayette. He has already enrolled his son who is in the 7th grade who is home schooled.
"Seeing that they'll be teachers who will have expertise in certain areas that can give him an education in those particular classes that we can’t that's a plus,” Armbruster said.
“Add on to that the infusion of Catholicism throughout the school, that French and Creole culture it just seemed like the perfect mix."
Maris Stella Classical Academy is set to open by September and open house will be February 17th 10 a.m. through 12 p.m.
The building was National Register of Historic Places in 1972. The building was constructed in 1876 and was the home of Eugene August Duchamp and his wife Amelie.
The building at one point was used a high school, and U.S. Post Office. It is currently owned by the city of St. Martinville and the front portion the building will still be able to be used by the city for events.
