The new school is a member of the Cristo Rey Network, a national group of 11 high schools that offer an innovative college preparatory education coupled with corporate internships to provide professional work experience and help defray tuition.

The new coeducational school will operate under the collaborative endorsement of five Roman Catholic religious communities: the Clerics of St. Viator; Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters; Congregation of the Resurrection; Society of the Holy Child Jesus and the Church of St. Mary, Lake Forest.

The new school is modeled after Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago’s Pilsen/Little Village neighborhood that opened in 1996.

WHEN: Monday, August 23, 2004

9:45 a.m. – Program begins

10:15 – 11 a.m. – Tours and interviews

WHERE: 1 North Genesee Street (at Washington Street)

Downtown Waukegan

WHO:The 100 freshmen and sophomore students who will comprise the first classes (others will be added in subsequent years);

Most Rev. Jerome Listecki, auxiliary bishop, Archdiocese of Chicago;

Rev. George Rassas, pastor, St. Mary Parish, Lake Forest;

Dr. Nicholas Wolsonovich, superintendent of schools, Archdiocese of Chicago;

Richard H. Hyde , mayor, City of Waukegan;

R.J. McMahon, president, St. Martin de Porres High School;

B.J. Cassin , founder of the Cristo Rey Network;

Student representatives of St. Martin de Porres High School.

VISUALS: The entire student body, faculty, board of trustees, special guests will march in a half-mile procession from Immaculate Conception Church, 510 Grand Avenue, east to Genesee Street and south to Washington Street where they will amass for a brief opening day ceremony on the building’s plaza.

En route, students will carry banners and a statue of the school’s patron,

St. Martin de Porres, a 16 th century Dominican brother who served the poor and sick in Lima, Peru.

In procession, students will chant a new school mantra:

“Who are we?” – “ S-M-d-P!”

“Where are we?”—“ In Wau-ke-gan.”

“And where is that?” –“In Lake Coun-ty.”

“And who are we?”—“ S-M-d-P — the school that works — S-M-d-P.”

When students arrive on the plaza (approximately 10:00 a.m.) brief podium remarks by school and community leaders will be followed by the presentation of ID lanyards and new backpacks to each of the students as they enter the building for the first day at the new high school.

St. Martin de Porres High School is opening in leased space in a building owned by the College of Lake County in downtown Waukegan. Classrooms, science and computer laboratories, offices and a student common room are located on two floors of the building.