Progress is being made on Lanier Christian Academy's brand-new academic building.
David Roberts the Director of Institutional Advancement, gave AccessWDUN a tour of the facility on Tuesday.
Roberts provided updates on the building and when they expect construction to be complete.
“They're telling us October. I'm going to tell you something you've never heard before. Right now we are scheduled to be done earlier and under budget,” Roberts said. “Have you ever heard that on a major construction project?”
Roberts gave credit to contractor Charles Black Construction Company for the progress that has been made.
LCA expects to shift students over to the new facilities in January 2025. Roberts said Kindergarten- Eighth grade will move first occupying the first floor.
“I don't think it will take the high school long to get over here,” Roberts said. “I believe by August of 2025, in the fall, we'll have the whole school over here in this building.”
The new building is nearly 90,000 square feet and will contain 55 classrooms, a media center, an art room, a lunch room, a gymnasium, a weight room and an indoor playground.
“The capacity will be right around 1000 students, and today we have 540 kids on campus,” Roberts said.
Roberts also discussed the budget of the project and how it was funded.
“It's an $18 million project, and we had a tax-exempt bond that gave us about $10 million of that,” Roberts said. “We've raised $5 million through private gifts just for this project.”
The new facility will provide students and teachers with their own space to learn.
“We're just so excited. It's been a long time coming, one of the schools started in 1984 and this thing is going to finish in October of 2024,” Roberts said. “40 years of renting and being a guest to finally having our own space.”
Roberts said his favorite part of the new facility is that LCA will have a permanent space to teach the next generation.
“I would just say that it's ours. It's just the fact that it's ours, and we're not renting it. We've had so many gracious hosts, I don't want to diminish their impact on the lives that they’ve served,” Roberts said. “I look at this, and I see a place that's in the community, where Christian education can be taught. That's important to me, that there's a place in this community where we can teach God's truth to kids and provide that space to families that are looking for it.”
