Church terminates lease with Salem Boys and Girls Club

SALEM ? The Boys & Girls Club has one year to find a new home.

Immaculate Conception Church, which has leased space to the club in the former St. Mary?s School for the past 25 years, will terminate its agreement in August 2013 to make way for a new Catholic boys school.

Nativity Prep, a tuition-free school for boys in grades five through eight, will move into the space and hopes to open in the fall of 2013, said the Rev. Timothy Murphy, pastor of Immaculate Conception.

?We hope that (the Boys and Girls Club) would find a place that would be very compatible, a better site even than ours,? said Murphy. ?... We wish them well. ... The Boys and Girls Club is now being operated very well. It?s a real asset to the community.?

The church notified the Boys and Girls Club of its decision in a letter late last week, giving the club one year?s notice. The news was not unexpected, however. Church officials had previously let the club know that Nativity Prep was eyeing the space, Murphy said.

?(Relocating) is something we?ve been seriously considering over the last year or so, and this will focus us on the task,? said Joanne Scott, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club.

?We?re really looking at it as an opportunity to move forward. ... This notice from the church has served to energize (us) and focus us tremendously.?

The Boys and Girls Club will undertake two searches simultaneously: one for temporary space for next fall and a second for a permanent home, said Scott.

Programming and activities will remain exactly the same through the coming school year, she said. She has scheduled a meeting for Tuesday, Sept. 11, at 7 p.m. at the club to answer any questions or concerns parents may have.

In the long term, Scott said the club would like to have a building of its own, possibly new construction, for which a fundraising campaign will be launched.

Nativity Prep, based on a school model founded by Catholic laypeople, operates on an extended-day model and keeps students into the evening.

Although not affiliated with the Boston Archdiocese, Nativity Prep is founded on Jesuit educational principles and aims to reach low-income kids. Planners have been working to bring Nativity Prep to Salem for more than a year.

The Boys & Girls Club began leasing 13 Hawthorne Boulevard, the former St. Mary?s School building, from Immaculate Conception in 1987.

The club?s executive board met yesterday. Scott said it?s too early to say where they are looking to relocate temporarily, but they are talking with a number of agencies, rental property owners and the Salem school department.

With beginnings in 1869, Salem?s Boys & Girls Club is the oldest in Massachusetts, and second-oldest in the country. It has more than 800 members, through age 18.

The club runs a myriad of programs, including a summer day camp, several after-school programs and drop-in programs for teens.

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Bethany Bray can be reached at bbray@salemnews.com and on Twitter @SalemNewsBB

Source: http://www.salemnews.com/local/x236909956/Church-terminates-lease-with-Salem-Boys-and-Girls-Club

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