KITCHENER — If you’re throwing a big party you probably rearrange the furniture before the guests arrive.
Some moving projects are bigger than others. A small army of volunteers spent an entire day last weekend helping Ian Timmerman transform his surroundings.
Nobody truly loves moving day. But Timmerman didn’t mind.
“In this case, it’s kind of exciting,” he said in a recent interview. “It has been a long-anticipated project.”
So last Saturday, volunteers hoisted desks and school supplies from six portables at Laurentian Hills Christian School in Kitchener and moved them into a brand new $2.4-million, two-storey, 900-square-metre (10,000-square-foot) expansion.
On Friday, Timmerman, the school’s principal, will swing the doors open to the public.
The recent construction at Laurentian Hills is one of several expansions, or planned expansions, being done by local Christian schools. Koinonia Christian Fellowship in Bloomingdale completed a multi-million-dollar expansion a year ago. Cambridge Christian School is in the midst of a $1.5-million capital fundraising campaign for renovations. And planners at Woodland Christian High School in Breslau hope to have a new addition within the next two years.
At Laurentian Hills, the expansion allows all 335 students, from JK to Grade 8, to attend classes under one roof.
“It really helps us to build community,” Timmerman said.
It also enables the school to expand its music program, he added.
As with any independent school, tuition is far from dirt cheap — they go up to a maximum
$6,700 per child per school year.
But despite the recession, the number of students has steadily increased, Timmerman said.
And while the economic downturn caused some members to question whether it was the right time to go ahead with the project, Timmerman said experience and faith moved them forward.
The school’s most recent expansion, undertaken before the current project, was done during the recession in the early 1990s.
People involved with that expansion helped put worries about the latest economic downturn into perspective.
They said a recession is a great time to build, Timmerman said.
“It shows . . . faith and trust and confidence to move forward,” he said. “And when you’re out of the recession, you’re well prepared,” he said.
Brent Miedema, capital campaign fundraising chair for Cambridge Christian School, in Cambridge, said the school’s board members sought God’s input on whether or not to go ahead with a $1.5-million renovation and expansion project.
“Is this what the Lord would want for Cambridge Christian School?” Miedema asked.
After some time in prayer, board members decided it was.
Since the original two-classroom school was established in 1967, the school has undergone
several expansions.
The building on Myers Road now has enough space for about 250. The number of students has hovered around 180 for the past decade, Miedema said.
But some areas in the 40-year-old section — the staff room, offices, washrooms and multi-purpose room — needed upgrading. The board also decided a new Junior Kindergarten classroom was needed.
So the capital fundraising campaign was launched in early 2008.
As the economy nosedived, fundraisers took a six-month break before recently resuming
their plea for pledges.
The campaign, which has raised $755,000, is just over the halfway mark.
Miedema said he hopes construction will begin this year.
“The Lord willing, toward the end of this year (and) into 2011,” he said.
Woodland Christian High School in Breslau is planning its third expansion since it was built
in 1979. Additions were built in 1987 and 2002.
The original building raised in 1979, was meant to accommodate about 100 students.
John Van Pelt, the school’s principal, said steady growth has led to an enrolment of 251 students, in Grades 9 to 12, this year.
“We’re close to capacity right now,” he said. “We’re feeling the crunch.”
Van Pelt said the school needs a new gymnasium and performing arts area, a common area and more classrooms.
Planners are working on adding several acres to the four-hectare (10-acre) school site. Van Pelt said he hopes the project will be completed within about two years.
The school originally attracted students from the families in the Reformed tradition — Christian Reformed, Presbyterian and other churches — but now has students from many different denominations.
Van Pelt said at this point he doesn’t expect the most recent recession to cause a drop in students.
Many school administrators chalk up the steady growth in enrolment to the quality of their programs and parents’ desire to integrate Christian faith in all aspects of their children’s lives.
Van Pelt said he suspects enrolment has risen partly because of Waterloo Region’s growing population.
“I think Kitchener-Waterloo has been a fairly vibrant community for the last number of years and our school has benefitted from that as well,” he said.
About 11,500 students are enrolled in the 70 schools that are members of the Ontario Alliance of Christian Schools.
Members include schools spanning from Thunder Bay to Ottawa to Windsor.
Enrolment across the association has been steady, said Ray Hendriks, director of development for the association.
But growth is taking place in schools where the general population is also growing, he said.
Hendriks said an expected drop in enrolment, due to the economic downturn, didn’t happen.
“The people who have enrolled their kids in the faith-based school movement will let other things go before they’ll let the educational choice go,” he said.
Hendriks said some schools are renovating and expanding because their buildings are aging or because they hope to attract students in a market where there is a lot of choice for independent schools.
Christian schools aren’t the only religions schools experiencing more students in their classrooms.
The Islamic Centre of Cambridge is planning a major expansion in the next decade. And more space for the Islamic school, currently about 110 students from JK to Grade 8, is part of the plan. Some parents have expressed hopes that high school classes might also be offered at the school.
But not all independent schools are equally blessed.
After 25 years in operation, Christ Lutheran School closed its doors last year. The building, on Trafalgar Avenue in Kitchener, has been sold to a developer.
Enrolment had dropped to about 60 students ranging from Kindergarten to Grade 12. That was down from a peak of 320 students at two campuses during the 1990s.
“Quite a number of the students were not in a position to pay full tuition,” said Rev. Mark Hartburg, pastor of Historic St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Kitchener. “It was just not sustainable . . . We just didn’t have the critical mass anymore.”
Hartburg’s congregation has long been closely linked to the K-W Lutheran School Society, whose board owned and operated the school.
Hartburg said the school needed 120 students to pay the school’s operating costs.
Some parents associated with the school are now home-schooling their children.
John Nieminen, a former board member of Christ Lutheran School, said the parents want to
give their children an education based on language-focused learning approaches. The approach is often dubbed a Classical education.
Nieminen’s two children, and another family’s two children, are being home-schooled together.
Nieminen said if enough families are interested in participating they would look to churches for classroom space and possibly financial support.
“We’re trying to take it to the next step where it’s not just a couple of families,” he said.
GRAND OPENING
Laurentian Hills Christian School, 11 Laurentian Dr. in Kitchener, will be holding a grand opening on Friday, Feb.5. The public is invited to drop in for special program, building tours and light refreshments from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Call 519-576-6700.
WEBSITES
Laurentian Hills Christian School
Cambridge Christian School
Woodland Christian High School
Classical Education Exploratory Committee
Koinonia Christian Fellowship
mpetricevic@therecord.com