Clovis Christian breaking ground on new school

Ground will be broken Tuesday for a new Clovis Christian School for kindergarten through sixth grade.

Located at 21st Street and Humphrey Road, the school will be able to accommodate twice as many students as the current building on 800 Hinkle St., according Clovis Christian School Superintendent Steve Medeiros.

Private donations are funding the $2.5 million project.

“The building we are in is old, and we are running out of space,” the superintendent said.

Since Clovis Christian School opened its doors 11 years ago, it has grown almost threefold. In the year it opened, 130 students were enrolled. An estimated 300 students will attend the K-12 school next year, according to Medeiros.

“We are excited to get started (on the project). We feel this is something God wants us to do,” Medeiros said.

Four years in the planning, the 31,000-square-foot building is expected to be ready for occupancy by the 2007-2008 school year, Clovis Christian School officials said.

“In my opinion, the building will be the best-looking thing around. It will be pretty, but very functional,” said David Petty, a Clovis Christian School board member who donated money and is the licensed contractor for the project.

Petty said the school’s focal point will be a high-school-sized gymnasium. There will be two classrooms for each grade, he said.

School officials said there are plans to build an addition for secondary students in the future. Students in seventh through 12th grades will be housed in the Hinkle Street building in the meantime, school officials said.