More than 1,500 people attend the Nov. 12 groundbreaking ceremony for Mary Star of the Sea High School's new $19 million state-of-the-art campus.

Msgr. Royal Vadakin, vicar general and moderator of the curia, presided over the blessing of the 28-acre site atop the bluffs on San Pedro.

The parish received the land from the U.S. Navy's property surplus in exchange for a $300,000 donation to the Harbor Women's Shelter in San Pedro. Over the years the parish worked to remove asbestos contaminated housing from the site, which is now valued at $25 million.

Through capital campaigns, over $9 million was raised towards the building of the new school with another $9 million secured in loans.

The first phase of buildings, expected to be completed in January 2006, will include the main classroom building to accommodate 600 students and a new gymnasium. The high school was first established in the early 1950s, serving for 16 years (1959-75) as a girls school, but reverting to a coeducational school with the closing of Fermin Lasuen High School for boys in 1975.

"We now have 460 students attending the high school, which is about 60 more than we should have in the building, and we currently have a waiting list of students," said Msgr. Patrick Gallagher, pastor of Mary Star of the Sea Church. "We have about 5,700 families in our parish and growing."

---Michelle Gahee