Mount St. Mary Academy is in the midst of a $500,000 campus improvement plan to add on-campus parking “while also improving the flow of traffic and campus aesthetics,” according to a letter mailed to neighbors of the school in Hillcrest.

Work started July 15 and the project is expected to be completed in early September, according to the letter from Karen Flake, the president and CEO of the Mount.

VCC is the contractor for the project, said school spokeswoman Sarah Johnson, and the money for the project was raised through private donations.

In addition to adding a parking lot with 35 to 40 spaces off Jackson Street, two existing parking lots are to be repaved, a portion of a one-way driveway is to be closed off to create a pedestrian plaza, an entrance/exit is to be added off Hillcrest Avenue to permit a circular traffic flow and a new entrance/exit is to be built from the lower parking lots on the south onto Kavanaugh Boulevard.

Johnson said the project was necessitated by the desire to improve traffic flow and by a 10 percent increase in the school’s enrollment in the past four years. It now stands at 534, she said.