‘A natural match’
Private school plans to open in fall 2024 at former Our Lady of Fatima in Wilton
WILTON — Shared enthusiasm for an educational vision they hope to create — coupled with some serendipity — has led two men to Wilton to start their ideal private school.
Schoolhouse Academy is making plans to open at the former Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Academy, which shut down last year. The building is located on the grounds of the church of the same name at 229 Danbury Road.
The new private school is not a religious academy nor is it affiliated with the church. But leasing the decades-old building to the new tenant school is a win-win situation for the church.
“It’s an empty building, (but) the parish has to pay all the bills,” said the Rev. Reggie Norman, pastor of Our Lady of Fatima Church. “It’s quite expensive.”
The former school had several iterations over the past decades, including time as a parish school and a regional Catholic school, but declining enrollment and budge issues forced the doors to shut for the last time in June 2022.
The parish uses it for some part-time church activities, but the building remains empty most weekdays.
Enter the team of Andrew McLaughlin and Carlo Schiattarella.
McLaughlin is a construction professional who has built and rebuilt a number of private and charter schools throughout the tristate area, including working closely with Schiattarella at the AECI Charter High School in the Bronx, N.Y., where Schiattarella is chair of the board.
Schiattarella is an education professional with a background that includes serving as board president with AECI. A resident of Stamford, he plans to enroll his own children at the new school in Wilton.
“It’s a project-based learning model with a STEM focus,” he said of the Schoolhouse Academy. “We’re going to be using more advanced technology than you’ll be seeing in a typical school.”
The men are passionate about their plans for the new private school, which they plan to open in the fall of 2024 for students in prekindergarten through eighth grade. A total of about 260 students across all the grades will be their maximum capacity.
The white boards seen in most schools will be replaced by zSpace 3D computers, which enable students to do third-dimensional interactive work, along with full-room projectors that display interactive activities for students on screens surrounding the entire classroom.
Classrooms, McLaughlin said, “will look more like a glorified Apple store,” with each student equipped with an iPad or similar device.
With an eye toward a “mastery” approach, wherein students reach a solid level of understanding of the material, peer learning and individualized tutoring will be a large part of the method at the Schoolhouse Academy.
“They’re will be a lot of interaction between kids,” Schiattarella said.
If all goes according to plan, their intention is to open a high school in 2025.
“We have our eye right now on a couple of properties . ... We would like to have it very close by to this area,” McLaughlin said.
The team originally looked to open in Norwalk last year at the LaKota Oaks conference center, but the Planning and Zoning Commission turned down a special
“They were looking for space to start their own school, so it was a natural match to deal with something that’s already in existence instead of from the ground up.”
Rev. Reggie Norman, pastor of Our Lady of Fatima Church
permit due to traffic concerns.
“It was definitely a godsend,” McLaughlin said of the rejection. “LaKota Oaks didn’t work out for the right reason.”
As their search for a location reopened, Wilton resident and commercial real estate professional Jeff Kaplan brought the empty school to the group’s attention.
“I knew Father Reggie really wanted to put a school there,” Kaplan said.
“The parish really needs support and income ... and I thought introducing Father Reggie and Fatima would really be filling a need for the school,” he said.
Norman said he is pleased to be partnering with the academy
“They were looking for space to start their own school, so it was a natural match to deal with something that’s already in existence instead of from the ground up,” he said.
“We’re just happy that we’re able to keep the building a school and provide an alternative education,” Norman said.
While they have longterm dreams of expanding the facility, the team can move forward immediately with extensive renovations within the building.
Financing is in place, they said, with more than $2 million of renovations planned. Now the team said it needs to sign up about 100 committed students in order to open next year.
Before the plans for Norwalk changed last year, about 500 area families expressed interest in learning about the new school, they said.
Both men said they expect to enroll students from around Fairfield County, calling Wilton a perfect nearby choice for many families.
“I think we’re going to have huge demand,” Schiattarella said.