SALISBURY — With numerous parents seeking alternative school options, North Hills Christian School wants to make sure that it has the capacity to accommodate this growing demographic.

The West Innes Street campus is currently in the midst of a large construction project that aims to expand the school’s footprint by more than 15,000 square feet. The project represents the largest expansion in North Hills’ history and is slated to increase the school’s enrollment by 25 percent. 

“Today, we have 525 students,” Executive Director Maria Lowder said. “With the new buildings, we will have the capacity to hold 750 students.”

“It is the largest expansion project that we have had. The addition of the classroom space is 12,000 square feet. The gymnasium addition we are doing is an additional 3,500 square feet. That will bring our total square footage to approximately 70,000 square feet on campus. It’s about 25 percent of our current campus size growth. Also, our capacity has grown by about 25 percent.

Despite the expansion, Lowder does not anticipate jumping from its current capacity to 750 by the start of next year. 

“We want to be (mindful) with our growth and make sure we are onboarding the right teachers, administrators and students,” Lowder said. “With that, it takes time to be at 750. Next year, we are projected to be at 600 students, not 750.”

Still, it will be beneficial to the school that was unable to admit every student who requested enrollment.  

“We have turned people away for this school year because we met capacity,” Lowder said. 

The new wing that is being built will house kindergarten through fourth-grade students. It’s coming along and can be seen from West Innes Street. Vertex Construction was contracted to build the additional space. 

Andrew Blakely, a Vertex Construction superintendent, indicated on Monday that they are currently working on “plumbing, mechanical, electrical and beginning to start drywall and working on insulation,” adding, “We are really working on all the trades at one time.”

With that work, the space is transitioning from the steel-beam jungle to a learning space. 

“By next week, it will start to look more like a building than a construction site,” Blakely said. 

Before the meat was added to the bones, North Hills administrators wanted to give students a chance to leave their mark on the future classrooms. Students wrote Bible passages and other positive messages on the beams before the inevitable insulation and drywall coverage.

While many of the North Hills students left their mark on the building’s bone, Blakely laughed and said that he had not.

“I do not do that,” Blakely said. “I have found some like that, but no, not me. 

Current construction represents phase three of a seven-phase that began in 2015. It’s not just classroom space that will be expanded, as Lowder explained. 

“We are adding a new stage to the end of our gymnasium because we have a drama program, band, praise band, and, of course, we have a chorus,” Lowder said. “With those fine arts opportunities, we needed a place to display those and have performances and concerts.”

The expansion also includes additions to the lunchroom space.

After the completion of all seven phases, North Hills’s capacity will be 1,000 students. The school also purchased three acres across Sells Road, where there are plans to relocate the baseball field to free up space for future construction. There are additional plans to purchase another seven acres as well.

Lowder said that as enrollment has increased, so have the revenues from tuition, which has permitted the school to pursue the expansion project. The executive director also pointed to legislation from the previous decade that has permitted increased schooling options for N.C. families. 

“There are also Opportunities Scholarship expansion from the state that is allowing parents who would like to have the choice to have Christian education for their child,” Lowder said. 

The Opportunity Scholarship program was created by the North Carolina General Assembly in 2013. Scholarships are awarded based on a family’s household income and can be used to pay the required tuition and fees to attend an eligible private school.

“It is enabling those that may not have been initially able to afford Christian education by giving parents a choice of schooling that in years past they were not able to,” Lowder said. “We are really positioning ourselves well to be able to handle the expansion of that scholarship because we expect more and more families will want to take advantage of that opportunity.”

While the classrooms are expected to be completed in time to start the school year in the fall, Lowder anticipates the gym expansion to be done sooner. 

“The gymnasium we expect to be completed at the end of March,” Lowder said. “We are very hopeful that we will be able to have our first big impact event in the gymnasium on April 18.

“We need the gym completed so that we can have that event.”