LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The tuition free West End School in the Chickasaw neighborhood will no longer be just for boys.
It's announced it's going co-ed.
The West End Girls School will enroll about 150 female students from Pre-K to eighth grade for the 2024 school year.
"We are very excited about that, it allows us to double our enrollment,” West End School Board Chair Dan Hall said. "It allows us to increase our footprint within the community and we think it will be a game changer for this neighborhood so we are very excited."
Officials with the school said the girls school has already secured $6 million in pledges from multiple sources and organizations. Officials also said that they are seeking to raise the remaining $4 million by the end of the year to start construction in 2023.
As part of Brown-Forman Corporation’s $50 million in educational grants announced in April 2022, officials said the West End School will receive $20 million over the next ten years to help fund both boys and girls’ operations.
While the school currently serves around 140 students, representatives with the West End School said the addition of the girls school is expected to double the size of the student body, allowing more students to be positively impacted by the academic program, but also requiring physical expansion of the campus.
Unlike the boys school, there will be no overnight care for students. However, before and after school care will be provided.
“We are profoundly taking a new step to expand the West End School so that the quality of education and opportunity here will now be offered to girls,” said Paul Perconti, co-founder and board chair emeritus for the West End School. “This is ambitious, but important. Important things are worth the effort.”
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