wfn.org | School and church build together

[Daphne Mack <dmack@dfms.org>]

For more information contact:
Episcopal News Service
Kathryn McCormick
kmccormick@dfms.org
212/922-5383
http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/ens

99-103

Colorado church and an independent school build
together for the future

by Joanna Patten

(ENS) Whiteman Primary School, a small non-religious
school in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, had long ago
outgrown its downtown quarters. Thanks to a long-term
lease (for $1 a year) on land owned by St. Paul's
Episcopal Church, the school is now constructing a
$920,000 building near the church to house its 43
students. The church will use the school's classrooms
for Sunday school. The unique collaboration doesn't
end there, though.

St. Paul's 300-member congregation had also outgrown
its present sanctuary, built in 1913 to seat 100. It
breaks ground this summer on a $1.8-million worship
space, situated between the existing church and the
new Whiteman school. The school will have full use of
St. Paul's parish hall during the week. The church's
worship space will also be available for community
concerts and performances.

"Churches, and the Episcopal Church in particular, have
historically been too insular," said Bishop William J.
Winterrowd of Colorado, who blessed the site and the
project last spring. "I would like to see more churches
look to what St. Paul's is doing and engage themselves
with the larger community outside their own walls in a
very meaningful way."

The project's stated mission includes enhancing the
spiritual, historical and educational values of the
community.  The school and church are accomplishing
these goals by sharing community space, conserving
land, preserving historical buildings, maintaining the
integrity of Oak Street, and putting a space to multiple
uses.

"It was an enormous effort to bring the school and church
projects together," said Nancy Spillane, Whiteman primary
head of school. "It might have been easier to do it alone,
but we both ended up with much better facilities together
than we would have had apart."

Each group is paying for the construction of its own
facilities. The project is being built in phases: The school/
parish hall building will likely be finished in 2000. So far,
$750,000 has been raised for the school's construction. The
church will pay for the parish hall, estimated at $281,000.
The church will pay for its adjoining new worship space,
estimated at $1.8 million. To date, St. Paul's has raised
$1 million in pledges or contributions to the building fund.
The original sanctuary will serve as an adjoining chapel. 

"We have not found this level of collaboration anywhere else
in the country," said the Rev. David Henderson, St. Paul's
rector. "Other churches have leased defunct church school
spaces to non-parochial schools, but we're doing it from the
ground up."

Nearly 40 percent of the donations made to the new school
have come from charitable foundations. Spillane said she is
especially appreciative of their support because most
foundations are telling her they are generally pulling back
from funding independent schools. 

"What appeals to them about our project is that it is truly
an unprecedented collaboration, and a facility that will serve
the entire community for concerts and other performances,"
said Spillane.

--Joanna Patten is a freelance writer and a parishioner of
St. Paul's.