St. Marcus Lutheran School, a Christian voucher school serving K3 through eighth grade students across its three campuses in Milwaukee, has completed an expansion of its Karl J. Schlueter Campus.

Formerly known as the Burleigh Street Campus, the Karl J. Schlueter Campus is located at 3129 N. 1st St. in Milwaukee. The campus was renamed to honor Karl J. Schlueter and his family, who provided a $6 million gift to the school’s Courage to Commit campaign.

The campus expansion project was completed in July. The project added the Mardak Vandenberg Gateway — which includes a new entryway, five classrooms and restrooms — as well as a courtyard, library and multipurpose space. The school hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the campus on Tuesday.

St. Marcus Lutheran School’s Courage to Commit campaign, which ran from 2020 through 2025, helped fund the final renovations to provide a new learning space for 300 middle school scholars. In total, the campaign raised $25 million to acquire and renovate the Karl J. Schlueter campus.

St. Marcus Lutheran School purchased the 1st Street building in 2019. The renovated campus currently serves 383 students and can now accommodate about 580 students at full capacity.

Philanthropists Keith Mardak and his wife Mary Vandenberg, former executives at Milwaukee-based sheet music publisher Hal Leonard Corp., committed a $3 million challenge grant to support the campus expansion.

Northwestern Mutual Foundation, Lynde & Harry Bradley Foundation, City Forward Collective, Greater Milwaukee Foundation, A.O. Smith Foundation, Bader Philanthropies, Todd Wehr Foundation and other groups have supported the project.

Catalyst Construction and Ramlow/Stein Architecture + Interiors were St. Marcus Lutheran School’s construction and design partners for the project.

Henry Tyson, superintendent of St. Marcus Lutheran School, said the school will next be turning its attention to focus on early literacy. The school has hired three reading intervention specialists this year and looks to expand its program for three-year-olds.

“Our goal is by the time students walk into first grade, 80% are at grade level,” Tyson said.

The school looks to expand its program for three-year-olds and plans to invest in equipping young parents “to be the number one educator” of their children, Tyson said.