While the media likes to tease the location for the former occupants, it will be interesting to see if this works. It’s kind of in the middle of nowhere.
TOWN OF TRENTON — An area Christian school that’s moving into a new location just outside West Bend is planning an open house for prospective students and their parents next week.
The Ozaukee Christian School is planning the event for 6:30 p.m. Aug. 6 at Calvary Church, 1110 E. Decorah Road. Principal Kris Austin said the open house is aimed at familiarizing potential families with the nondenominational school’s programs and financial aid offerings.
The school is poised to launch its first academic year inside its new building: a converted strip mall — and onetime gentleman’s club — along Highway 33 between West Bend and Newburg.
Austin called the renovation a “transformation andredemption” of a property that was once home to the Rhino Gentlemen’s Club. She said Tuesday
the school had closed on a sale of the property just last week.
Portions of the 22,000square-foot building should be renovated in time for the start of classes Sept. 16, she said. The rest of the building should be prepped in time for a complete campus opening next year.
As to location, from what I know, they have been drawing students from several counties like Ozaukee, Washington, Sheboygan, and there has been a lot of interest from West Bend families, so I guess any site solution would have to be a “compromise”. Another factor is that in their 2-year search for locations (their current location that they leased for 19 years was sold), there really was nothing available with the potential to expand – I think their goal is 200 students. One of the board members attends my church – during this process we had a lot of conversations about their progress in finding a site. Good thing he did not consider my advice to wait to see if the Jackson school building becomes available – the referendum for the new one did not get passed, and recently there have been several articles about school districts refusing to sell surplus buildings to private/parochial schools. The ROI on razing or doing minimal maintenance on surplus buildings must be greater than the fiscal impact of reduced enrollments that might result from other educational options.
What is unique about OCS is that they are not part of any particular church or denomination, so they don’t receive the financial support that the Lutheran and Catholic schools might get. However, there are a lot of independent churches in the area whose families are seeking some sort of parochial education for their children.
During the OCS search, Northern Ozaukee School District established a charter school at Riveredge Nature Center. It is near Newburg (maybe 3 miles from this site) and also in the middle of nowhere. It is starting up this fall, and their initial enrollment has been spectacular – almost every grade had a waiting list and only one grade was less than full enrollment, so they were seeking late applications for that grade. I assume open enrollment has been a factor in this successful startup.
Kettle Moraine Lutheran High School near Jackson also seems to be in a somewhat rural location and it looks like they have been very successful in raising the funds to expand their facilities to meet their growth in enrollment.
I wonder if the local Catholic churches will ever see their way to establishing a high school to serve this area.
It is my observation that people are seeking choices, be it public schools, charter schools (which are public), private/parochial schools, open enrollment into other school districts (another public option), home schooling, virtual schooling (another public option).
The FFRF will probably lament Satan moving out and Christ moving into the building.
You never see FFRF threatening, attacking, or destroying the open display of demons at a Gentleman’s club. Why is that?
Because demons aren’t real? Because the demon lobby isn’t trying to get public dollars to proselytize?
Oh, let me guess: You think FFRF are in league with the demons.