Villa Maria High School wants to stay at its current location

Villa Maria High School will remain at its current location after the Congrégation de Notre-Dame (CND) announced that they are selling the estate.

The land is located between Westmount and Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (NDG) in Montreal.

The board of directors and management of Villa Maria reaffirmed their commitment to the community in a press release on Monday.

“We are determined to remain on our heritage site in order to pursue the educational mission of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame,” said Catherine Maheu, Chair of the Board of Directors. “Given its rich 170-year history, Villa Maria must be central to the issues surrounding the future of the estate, in the interests of our 1,900 current students and the thousands more who could eventually benefit from our unique educational offering, as well as those of our dedicated personnel, and the entire community.”

Once the call for tenders has been issued, the board of directors and management will refrain from making further comments to avoid bias or prejudice.

However, Villa Maria has a right of first refusal, which it intends to use should the need arise.

“Since the sale of the estate was announced in June 2023, we have been working relentlessly to preserve our educational mission, exploring various scenarios to this end,” said Maheu. “We have kept all our educational, social, and governmental partners abreast of our commitment to ensuring the future of the gem that Villa Maria is.”

Villa Maria is a private co-ed high school which provides a secondary education in French and English to 1,900 students.

For the past 170 years, the school has produced more than 20,000 graduates.

Designated as a historic monument in 1951, the building is one of the largest religious real estates in the borough there, worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

The land has belonged to Sœurs de Notre-Dame since 1854.