St. Paul's Lutheran School in Glen Burnie to add high school grades starting in 2027

GLEN BURNIE, Md — A new Christian high school is coming to Glen Burnie — but it's not exactly a new school. St. Paul's Lutheran School is expanding to the high school level in 2027.

The school will add ninth grade in the 2027-28 school year and will grow by one grade each year until it serves students through 12th grade. Leaders say they are also expanding the school's STEAM education program, building on skills already taught to middle schoolers.

St. Paul's Lutheran School in Glen Burnie dates all the way back to 1950. At the time, the school was one single kindergarten class. By 2014, the school had expanded over the years and now teaches students up until 8th grade. Now the school is working to grow again.

Principal Ken Coughlan says the idea came directly from families in the community.

"The whole thing started just by listening to members of the community what they were looking for," Coughlan said.

Coughlan says parents have expressed interest in having high school level classes their children can attend.
"It started really a couple years ago. I was talking to a number of parents that were graduating from our eighth grade class and they really wanted to continue this type of medication but the options that they saw out there were just prohibitive," Coughlan said.

After two years of planning, he says the school is ready to begin the transition.

"Were going to be adding ninth grade with next school year 27-28 and then just to make sure those parents know if you start a ninth grade with us you'll be able to finish at 12 because we're gonna be adding one grade every single year," Coughlan said.

Coughlan says the school will expand its STEAM education program, advancing on skills already being taught to middle schoolers.

"And so we chose a steam education because we already had a lot of infrastructure here in place for example we're already teaching our middle schoolers things like PC building are already building their own personal computers. They're already doing things like game design and so we kind of built on that and decided what could we do?," Coughlan said.

He says he anticipates the growth being a smooth transition, since many of the changes aren't very different from how the school currently operates.

"When we discovered that a lot of the infrastructure that we would need we already had and so now it's really this matter, tapping into the resources with those personal resources there's people to kind of check with them. Hey, are you behind this vision with us and you get those people that say absolutely we want to get this thing up and running. They get excited about it and that's kind of what gets the ball rolling," Coughlan said.

As the years go on, the school will expand both in capacity and in structure.

"And so we do have a plan a strategic plan to add staff every single year based on the needs we have as the student population grows," Coughlan said.

St. Paul's Lutheran School is having a high school preview night on November 3, where parents and the community can learn more about the future plans as the school continues to expand.

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