St. Augustine Preparatory Academy is in the home stretch on a $100 million north campus at the former Cardinal Stritch University site, with an opening date circled for Aug. 17, 2026. The project is turning parts of the closed college into new K4–12 classrooms, alongside purpose-built athletics and arts facilities. It is the latest chapter in a privately funded push by the Ramirez Family Foundation to expand Aug Prep’s reach to Milwaukee’s north side.
The roughly $100 million price tag and near-finished status were detailed by the Milwaukee Business Journal, which reports that construction crews are wrapping up work ahead of the August 2026 debut. School leaders plan to brand the site as “Aug Prep North.”
Campus Plan And Facilities
Preliminary plans call for STEM labs, music and visual-arts spaces, a new fieldhouse, a turf soccer field and an outdoor track to support athletics and extracurriculars, according to Wisconsin Public Radio. School materials and planning documents also highlight college- and career-readiness spaces and health-care training facilities as part of the overall build-out.
Purchase And Funding
The Ramirez Family Foundation bought the former Cardinal Stritch campus in July 2023 for about $24 million, according to Milwaukee Magazine. The foundation’s website says the work is privately financed and is intended to bring a high-quality K–12 option to Milwaukee’s north side, rather than relying on public funding for the redevelopment. Ramirez Family Foundation materials spell out the project’s goals and community focus.
Construction And Timeline
Ceremonial groundbreaking for “Aug Prep North” took place in October 2024, and crews have been demolishing older buildings and rehabbing others as the site is prepared for new construction, as reported by CBS58. Planning documents in city records, filed in the site’s Agenda Center, list the property at 6801 N Yates Road, the former Cardinal Stritch address, and outline both demolitions and new construction footprints. Electrical and low-voltage work is being handled by Lemberg Electric, which features Aug Prep North in its project portfolio.
What It Means For Families
Aug Prep opened on Milwaukee’s south side in 2017 and has grown quickly. According to school planning materials and reporting from the Milwaukee Business Journal, the north campus is slated to start with just over 300 students in K4–6 and ninth grade, then expand to serve more than 1,000 high-school students over time. The south campus will remain the operational hub while some programs gradually shift north, according to the school’s website.
School leaders say they plan to release more detailed programming and enrollment information later this year on their website. For now, Aug Prep North stands as a major private investment in schooling on the north side, one that will reshape education options for Milwaukee families beginning in August 2026.
