Welcome to ACSI

By: Josh Worden

When St. Augustine Preparatory Academy (Aug Prep) broke ground in Milwaukee almost a decade ago, two worlds collided.

The school’s intended location was an “industrial dumping ground,” says Kelsey Brenn, one of the school’s founding members. The property had a number of worn-down buildings, one of which became the new Aug Prep central office: a small yellow house infested with raccoons.

“We saw promise there, and God saw promise there,” Brenn said.

The dour appearance of the location was contrasted by the factors playing heavily in the school’s favor. Aug Prep’s startup team was committed to building Christ-centered education from the ground up, and they had generous financial backing from a nonprofit, The Ramirez Family Foundation.

“They’ve been committed to changing education for Milwaukee for a long time,” Brenn said. “Sometimes to no avail, with red tape and roadblocks.”

The foundation decided to try a new approach: start a Christian school from scratch.

Initially serving as the Chief Financial Officer, Brenn and three teammates got the ball rolling.

“In true startup fashion, we were doing everything ourselves: knocking on doors, having teachers come in, picking out the floors, furniture, and curriculum,” she said. “We had to work with environmental grants. There was all sorts of stuff in the ground. Across the street, there was prostitution and drugs.”

Aug Prep opened in the fall of 2017 with about 600 students and grew quickly from there. Today, the school has expanded to cover the entire block across the street and now serves almost 2,400 students. Brenn says crime has dropped nearly 50 percent in the neighborhood compared to before the school was established.

“You bring life, people, and hope to a neighborhood, and you can change things,” Brenn said.

They’re not done yet, either. Aug Prep is in the process of expanding again, having purchased the land used by a recently closed university on the north side of Milwaukee.

Expanding is only one strategy Aug Prep is using to fulfill its core mission—supporting an underserved community at its roots.

“Almost 90 percent of our students at our founding South Campus qualify for free or reduced lunch, and we’re about 90 percent Hispanic,” Brenn said. “They come from 50-plus zip codes, and we don’t bus, so there are families driving 20-30 minutes or kids taking multiple city buses to get here. I think it’s a picture of how desperate many families are for quality education.”

On campus, the school has plentiful resources for students to thrive. Aug Prep employs nine social workers, nine college and career advisors, and a behavioral therapist, not to mention sensory rooms and a therapy dog.

“When kids have trauma or mental health needs, they can’t learn, so we’ve got all of these support teams in place to hopefully get past that,” Brenn said.

Aug Prep has a "family team” that helps when students’ families encounter housing instability, their power going out, losing their mode of transportation, or other issues.

“We can’t be everything to everyone, but we often have partners in the community who can bridge those gaps,” Brenn said. “Serving the whole child is important to us, and so is serving the whole family, because that’s how students flourish.”

One of Aug Prep's highlights in its nine years of existence comes in the form of a video featuring its students.

Aug Prep hosts an annual fundraiser, and staff members typically create a video to introduce the school’s mission to potential donors. Last year, they wanted to do something a little more fun, and a providential connection helped make that happen.

“I was at church one day and sat next to this guy who had a video production company,” Brenn said. “He wanted to see what we did at Aug Prep. He produces music and has all these talents, so we worked with him.”

Students played a large role, helping choreograph a music video that included various staff members and student activities.

"It was really fun for them. They came in on Saturdays, practiced, and recorded,” Brenn said. “Everyone knows it and it’s so catchy.”

Today, Aug Prep has its sights set on serving the Milwaukee community—on two different campuses, beginning in 2026—much in the same way the school has done since 2017.

“A lot of people thought this couldn’t be done. We hit a lot of roadblocks, whether that was city council members, neighbors, or funding. Every time, God has delivered,” Brenn said. “It doesn’t mean we haven’t had setbacks. But we’ve seen over and over again, when there’s been a challenge, if you walk towards it with trust, hard work, and a belief that God has bigger things planned, it’ll come to fruition.”