As with many public districts, even private schools are facing the challenge of paying competitive salaries to their teaching staff.For schools like Liberty Christian Academy in Wright City, improving salaries depends on increasing enrollment. To pay teachers more, the school either has to add students or raise its tuition.It’s one reason the school board has taken on an initiative to build a new extension to the current facility, located on the North Service Road. Board Chairman Butch Clark says the hope is to add five new classrooms and a new gymnasium.“It won’t be easy, but we’ve got a pretty good group of committed people,” said Clark. “Hopefully we’ll be able to attract a few people to join us on that.”Currently the school is housed in a brick building that was constructed in the 1930s. Attached to the rear of the building is an addition that was built in the 1960s. That portion of the facility has not been used for instruction since October of 2006 and now serves as storage space.“That building has a lot of electrical problems, as well as issues with the plumbing in the concrete,” said Board Member Matt Voss. “It’s extremely inefficient. We decided it would be more cost-effective to just start all over with a new building.”The idea would be to construct a new building on the current slab in two phases.“Phase one is to build the school portion and phase two to build a gymnasium,” said Voss. “Then we’ll have two gymnasiums to have some basketball tournaments and rent the gyms out to fund the project.”The board anticipates the project to cost around $800,000. The school has an immediate goal of raising $360,000 and has accomplished $70,000 of that thus far. Voss says the board has several fundraisers in mind, including a group work opportunity at Hollywood Casino Amphitheater concerts that could yield as much as $100,000.Additionally, the school is selling customized bricks for those who like to be a commemorative part of the process. Cost for a single brick is $100.“The whole idea is to be able to afford to pay our teachers a higher wage and the only way we see we can do that is if the school grows and the only way is to grow the facility and improve it and the whole school,” said Voss.The school has 136 students, down from 148 last year. Voss says bringing in 50 new students would create around $200,000 in additional tuition for teacher salaries. He believes the fresh buildings would provide more appeal to those touring the school as a possible educational option.Liberty Christian moved to its present location in July of 2005, after the closing of Warrenton Christian School.

Rendering of the proposed Liberty Christain Academy expansion.

Submitted image