Community Christian School is expanding its footprint. School leaders, staff members and students gathered Tuesday to break ground on a multimillion-dollar building project at the private Christian school on Packhouse Road.
The first phase of the project will add 12 classrooms to the school and should be complete within the next six months, school officials said.
“It’s not going to stop today with the classrooms we’re starting,” CCS board Chairwoman Wendy Winstead told the crowd. “You are the future of CCS.”
Winstead said the second phase of the capital project will include a new 17,000-square-foot gymnasium.
“It’s not just for us, but for the community,” Winstead said. “It’s to have events. It’s to have tournaments. It’s to have conferences. It’s to have everything that we can to bring people to this campus.”
Winstead later said the third phase would include a new cafeteria and possibly a third wing for more classrooms. The multi-phase project is estimated to come in at $7.5 million, she said.
CCS has students from prekindergarten through 12th grade.
‘WE’RE JUST BEGINNING’
Jackson Builders constructed the school and is taking on the expansion project.
Robert Bartlett, one of the school’s founding members and a current CCS board member, said God has been faithful.
“Twenty-three years ago, God stirred a vision in the hearts and minds of several individuals,” Bartlett said. “The vision was for the Wilson community to have the option for a nondenominational Christian educational environment. This is not our story, it’s his story. And apparently, God intends this to be a novel, and we’re just beginning chapter two or three.”
KS Bank is financing the project, school officials said.
“Soon, the construction team will be laying a foundation to support the various buildings in this project,” CCS board member Gasford Brown told the crowd. “Similarly, the board and administration, teachers and staff are daily laying the foundation for lives to be built on, and we pray that those will be lives with Christ Jesus at the center.”
Caleb Varnell, CCS board member and alumnus, shared how the school shaped who he is today.
“These new classrooms will be more than bricks and mortar, they will be a vehicle and a tool that will allow these teachers and administrators to educate children and lead them closer to the Lord,” Varnell said.
CCS Headmaster Steven Wall said each day is a step in the right direction. He said a lot of faith led to the school’s construction.
“We want a continuation of that, and we see that in this process,” Wall said about the expansion.