Cafaro Family finances $200K UHS lab renovation

By Denise Dick

denise_dick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The Rev. Richard Murphy, president of Ursuline High School, dedicated the school’s renovated chemistry lab with a blessing.

“We dedicate this room to the sound education of our youth, to the progress of science and to learning,” Father Murphy said in the Thursday morning blessing.

He sprinkled holy water throughout the space.

Jennifer DePizzo, the school’s chemistry teacher, said the $200,000 project retained only the brick wall from the old lab.

“This was completely gutted and renovated,” she said.

The room received new flooring, ceiling, lighting desks, cabinets, eye wash station, fume ventilation, emergency shower and lab benches.

Teaching in the new versus the old space isn’t any different though, DePizzo said: “The excellence of Ursuline High School is still the excellence of Ursuline High School.”

The $200,000 project, funded by the Cafaro Family Foundation, is the first phase of the school’s science wing renovation.

Olsavsky Jaminet Architects designed the new classroom and laboratory. A.P. O’Horo Co. completed the work.

Phase II, expected to start next summer, will renovate the remaining three rooms of the wing into two larger ones, and updated life science labs.

Dr. Ed Novosel, a 1965 Ursuline High School graduate, attended Thursday’s ceremony with John Ulicney, who was his biology and chemistry teacher and chairman of the school’s science department.

Ulicney taught Dr. Novosel in the chemistry room.

“I taught for 46 years, subbed for two and one year part time,” Ulicney said.

He loved his work.

“There was never a day I didn’t want to come to work,” Ulicney said.

The renovated room is beautiful, he said, but the school’s tradition remains intact.

“The kids are great, the faculty is still excellent, and the administration is still doing excellent work,” the retired teacher said.