Lutheran school raising money to buy land

By DONNA WINCHESTER

© St. Petersburg Times, published January 3, 2001

ST. PETERSBURG -- Lutheran Church of the Cross Day School has launched a fundraising campaign to purchase a strip shopping center adjacent to its property at 4400 Chancellor St. NE in Shore Acres. School and church families have pledged approximately $25,000 toward the $200,000 down payment needed for a scheduled Feb. 16 closing.

There are no definite plans for the two buildings, which total 12,000 square feet, but LCC school board chairman Robert Kapusta said they could be used for classroom space or for the church's youth activities program.

He said the school's long-range plan is to build a middle school, and that purchasing the shopping center is a logical starting place.

"It makes a lot of sense for the school and church to control that property for future use," he said. "There are all kinds of possibilities, but the first step is trying to acquire the land."

Kapusta said church and school board members have long seen the shopping center as potential space to grow into, but until now, it wasn't available.

"We've always talked about the property," he said. "We made inquiries in the past, but the owner wasn't interested in selling. So we put the idea on a back burner. We finally were able to strike a deal."

Real estate investor Fred Buns agreed two weeks ago to sell the property to LCC for $800,000. According to Rod Huffman, church board chairman, the school will honor existing leases, some of which have several years remaining.

Huffman said the rental income will enable LCC to qualify for bank loans needed above and beyond fundraising. He said that not having all the space available for immediate use will ensure the cautious growth that has been the school's policy since 1968.

Originally a preschool, LCC first grew in 1993 with the addition of a kindergarten class. First and second grades were added, and by 1996, the school's 225 students found themselves cramped for space.

A 2-acre parcel across from the school became available and a 12-classroom building was completed in time for the 1997 school year. Two third-grade classes and a fourth grade had been added by then. The kindergarten through fourth-grade classes moved into the new 15,000-square-foot space. The preschool stayed in the original building.

An additional fourth grade and two fifth-grade classes were added by 1999, when the school graduated its "pioneer class," the first group of students who had attended LCC since preschool. Present enrollment is approximately 330.

"We didn't want to grow too quickly," Kapusta said, adding that the plan was to provide an additional grade each year to accommodate current students.

According to school director Holly Carlson, a natural attrition occurs, but retention from grade to grade has improved each year. Students can enter the school at any point, she said, adding that many come for fifth grade.

She said that children usually go to other private schools when they leave LCC. A few go to zoned middle schools or to magnet programs. She said she has no doubt that a sixth-grade class could be filled with graduating fifth-graders.

"A 1999-2000 climate survey indicated a strong interest among parents for the addition of a middle school," she said. "It was the only thing parents said they would change about the school."

But she thinks LCC is still at least two years away from a middle school.

"It's certainly been our dream," she said, "but we want to do our homework, like we did for the elementary school."

Meanwhile, the fundraising will continue. Kapusta said the $25,000 raised in the past two weeks was the result of an aggressive phone and letter-writing campaign, which will continue.

"I'm pleased with the results so far," he said, "but there's a long way to go."

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