The new school building at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Lombard has been 20 years in the making.
About two decades ago the church realized it wanted to build a new school, but it was landlocked without the room for it, said school Principal John Aurich. So the church began buying neighboring houses as they went up for sale and then tearing them down or moving them.
“In 1999, the last one was removed,” Aurich said. “It’s been a long planning process.”
Ground was broken on Easter Sunday in 2005, and the school opened its doors to its first students last week.
The building has 15 classrooms, a music room, an art room, a science lab, a library and computer lab, a 7,000-square-foot gym, and a multi-purpose room used as a cafeteria. The old building has eight classrooms, a small library and a computer lab, Aurich said.
The school, which goes from preschool to eighth grade, has 235 students. The new building has room for 350 students.
“It gives us some room to grow,” he said.
Having room to provide more students with a Christian education is important to the church, said the Rev. Dan Wegrzyn, pastor of St. John’s Lutheran.
“It’s part of our code, our DNA ... to have Christian education for our kids,” Wegrzyn said. “We’re strong on having schools where Christ could be woven into the rest of our curriculum.”
The new building will not only serve the current and future students better, he said, but also allow St. John’s to have a larger role in the community.
“It will allow us to serve our community better,” he said. “We can be more externally focused, reach out to all in our community.”
That could be both through education or things like having rooms to rent for community events, he said.
“We want to be a presence in Lombard,” he said.
The building cost about $6.4 million, Aurich said, and is being paid for by the church community through fundraising.
“We’re still paying on it,” Wegrzyn said.
Although tuition is paid, the bulk of the funding for the school comes from the church’s congregation, he said.
The students are loving the new school, Wegrzyn said. In his sermon at the school’s dedication Sunday, he talked about walking around the school, asking the students what they thought of it.
“It’s a dream come true, somebody said,” he recalled. “Morale and excitement are at an all-time high.”
