After just two years at its present location, Genesis Classical Academy (GCA) in Winnebago has run out of room.
In a recent letter to financial supporters, a capital campaign is planned for this year because, “the need is urgent.”
Expansion would consist of a multi-purpose community center, according to the letter, that would include classrooms and a gymnasium/auditorium.
“We are having internal discussions, but I don’t have definitive information to offer more publicly at the point,” says Bill Erickson, president of GCA’s board.
School officials say more infrastructure is needed because there are plans to add a 12th-grade level, upper-level courses, staff, programs and sports.
School headmaster Renee Doyle in the letter says a Christmas concert held last year showed expansion is necessary.
Doyle says more than 400 people attended the event on one of the worst weather nights of the year.
“Many had to sit far from the front in the lobby,” she says. “If the weather had been good, we would have had to turn people away.”
The non-denominational Christian school opened its doors in 2015 with about 30 students in grades preK-4 in the north end of Heartland Senior Living-Parker Oaks campus.
The school currently has an enrollment of 119 students and serves a 50-mile radius.
GCA purchased the adolescent treatment center building operated by United Hospital District in 2020 and did some renovation work before relocating.
Last year, GCA’s 2022-2023 Matching Gift Challenge met its match of $55,000 to meet a goal of $110,000. The school also received an additional $28,906 for a final total of $138,906.