Peconic Community School to purchase Sacred Heart campus in Cutchogue

Peconic Community School is in contract to purchase the 10.2 acre Sacred Heart R.C. Church campus in Cutchogue, the school announced.

The private school, which educates more than 100 students from pre-K through 8th grade, intends to utilize the new property as its permanent home beginning in fall 2023.

The sale includes not only the former Our Lady of Mercy Regional School, but also the neighboring church and rectory buildings and surrounding woodlands, said PCS co-executive director Liz Casey Searl.

“Having been raised in this parish, we are humbled by the opportunity to steward this iconic and beautiful property into the future in a way that honors its past and the vision for the future of the North Fork,” said Ms. Casey Searl, who co-founded and runs the school with her sister, Kathryn Casey Quigley. “From preserving the green space and woods, to restoring the historic church building, we look forward to partnering with the wider community to preserve and transform the property into a community hub of educational and arts programming on the North Fork. It’s truly a dream come true.”

PCS, which describes itself as a non-profit independent, progressive school, currently leases space at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Aquebogue, where it has been based since its inception in 2012. Its founders said they have always envisioned a larger campus that could serve “as a cultural, arts and educational resource for the wider community.”

Eventually, they hope to expand to include “after school and summer camp offerings; update the carriage house into an art studio with a community kiln and to preserve and improve the property’s wooded acreage with trails.”

Our Lady of Mercy closed in 2018. The church closed at the end of 2012.