The $50 million building is being paid for by Connor Group – Kids & Community Partners, which is backing an effort to create a new private school for low-income students in Montgomery County.
The school opened in August at a different location near Sinclair College with 85 students in preschool through third grade, said A.J. Stich, the principal of the school. Next school year, students will start in the temporary school space, and then move later in the fall to the new location at Deed’s Point.
Stich said the building will be a good space for both teachers and students to work. As someone who has taught in low-income school buildings that were subpar and falling apart, Stich said the new building would be a change.
“We get to learn in this state-of-the-art educational facility, and this is what every kid deserves,” Stich said.
It’s also good for the teachers, he said.
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Credit: JIM NOELKER
“It’s been great today just to see (the teachers) get to come out and enjoy this and see the smiles on their faces getting to know they’re going to get to teach in the school,” Stich said.
When the students move into the new building in the fall, grades preschool through fourth will be housed in the building, with the current third graders promoted to fourth grade.
Ryan Ernst, director of Kids & Community Partners, said 100 students are expected to be enrolled in the fall. The plan is to add classes of about 40 kids until there are kids in each grade level up to eighth grade and about 400 students are enrolled.
Ernst said the building could eventually expand to house 600 students.
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Credit: JIM NOELKER
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