Galesburg Christian School is expanding.
The school has signed a contract to purchase the Bethany Baptist Church building on South Academy Street to be the future junior and senior high school. The addition would allow the school to return to smaller class sizes across its campus.
Not only will the Christian school be adding more classrooms, but also an auditorium and a gymnasium, allowing for expanded programming for all ages. With the recent hiring of a new science teacher, the school plans to build a dedicated science lab and an improved science program for our students.
Administrator Bob Nutzhorn tells WGIL that the Christian school had been renting that gym from Bethany for a few years already.
“We’ve already been renting the gym from them for the last couple of years. It’s been a great space for us for that. We really appreciate the congregation there allowing us to do that. And they’re going to be renting from us now, we’re going to switch spots as they transition. So they’re going to rent the auditorium from us to continue to hold services for there for at least a little while. We’re thankful for that partnership that we can get along and make that work.”
Nutzhorn says that not only will the gym provide a more consistent practice space for the junior and senior high school athletes, but it’ll allow the athletic program to expand into the elementary school.
With the addition of the auditorium that can seat about 400 people, Nutzhorn says that the fine arts programming will be expanding as well.
“We’re going to do quite a bit more with our drama, now that we have an auditorium to do plays in. We can actually set up the stage and do all of that. And we also want to expand our music, including a pep band. Our plan is to have a pep band because we have room to practice and a place to be. Right now we just didn’t have that. We’re also going to bring back our worship band that we have and we’ve had in the past but just didn’t have room for right now.”
Nutzhorn tells WGIL that the goal for the Christian school is to be open and operational by the start of the 2023/24 school year.
