ATTLEBORO - Bishop Feehan High School, looking back on a legacy of service and ahead to demands of technology, officially broke ground Monday for the conversion of a former convent into a media, technology and classroom building.

The $4.5 million academic expansion project is the largest major renovation to the 950-student high school campus since its construction in 1961, Feehan President Christopher Servant said. The conversion project will allow the school to offer students up-to-date facilities in a digital age.

The school has already raised more than $3 million toward the project, to be called Mercy Hall after the Sisters of Mercy who provided the original faculty.

"This expansion project ushers in a new era in the 47-year-history of our school," Servant said.

Originally, the convent was occupied by the Sisters of Mercy who were assigned to teach at the high school. Sister Patricia Harrington, the sole remaining faculty member from the Sisters who joined the faculty in 1968, gave the invocation at Monday's ceremony.

Principal Bill Runey and fundraising campaign co-chairmen Tom Cuddy and Ted Dion also addressed the crowd composed of alumni, contributors, faculty members and supporters of the diocesan high school. The renovated facility, scheduled for completion in May, is being overhauled by Ryan Construction of Walpole.