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Prime Time Head Start and Early Head Start will add four classrooms at Holy Rosary Institute, expanding its classroom capacity to serve more students while also helping to bring life back to the historic campus.

The added classrooms will allow Prime Time to accept 60 additional Head Start students in a renovated space that was formerly a cafeteria at the site. Located less than a mile from Prime Time’s Lafayette campus at Immaculate Heart of Mary, the location will allow Prime Time to leverage the family services and other resources on the IHM campus at the Holy Rosary site as well.

“Much like our center at IHM, this is a unique opportunity for Prime Time to be part of the revitalization of an important educational institution in Lafayette and is in keeping with the mission of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities to preserve Louisiana’s important historical and cultural past while planning for a brighter future,” said Miranda Restovic, president and executive director of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.

Founded in 1913, Holy Rosary Institute, located at 421 Carmel Street in Lafayette, began as an early vocational and technical school for African American females. In 1947, it began admitting males and provided an education to the Black community which would not otherwise have been available during that time. The main school closed in 1993 and efforts soon began to revitalize the campus. The Holy Rosary Redevelopment Corporation was created in 2010 with the goal of restoring the 40-acre site and returning it to a place of prominence in the community as a center for educational, economic, social, cultural and spiritual development.

“We are excited to add our partnership with Prime Time Head Start to the many positive developments happening at Holy Rosary,” said Dustin Cravins, Holy Rosary Redevelopment president. “This investment strengthens our commitment to creating a brighter future for the community and ensuring Holy Rosary continues to be a place of growth and opportunity.”

The project marks the second time Prime Time has been part of bringing back a historic campus in Lafayette. Opened in 1934, Immaculate Heart of Mary church and school, at 812 12^th St. in Lafayette, were created to be the home for the first four Black priests to be trained and ordained in the United States. The school educated generations of Lafayette residents before closing ahead of the 2016-17 school year. The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities opened Prime Time Head Start and Early Head Start in the school in 2022 and recently constructed an additional wing to expand its services to nearly 300 children between the ages of six weeks and five years old at the site.