Do it yourself! A basement build out will probably cost you min 20k, you can easily do it yourself with basic framing knowledge + insulation for probably a quarter of the cost, especially that lumber is down now.

My Catholic school was fairly liberal as well. We had kids of all faiths (Jewish, Muslim, flavors of protestant) and you could generally opt out of most of the religious stuff with a valid reason. You had to take religion classes but they weren't really even Catholic - it was stuff like a critical reading of the bible, philosophy, comparative religions etc.

Mario's has better pizza, but Pizza Mart is good for typical greasy sub-shop food.