NWC breaks ground

COLBERT – Northwest Christian Schools elementary students now attend classes in barracks salvaged decades ago from Farragut Naval Base in Idaho.

The Central Avenue campus is cramped, with tiny classrooms and old facilities.

Within two years, however, the students will move to a new school in Colbert, adjacent to the Northwest Christian middle school and high school.

Administrators, students and supporters joined to break ground on the $13.5 million school last week.

“We need a little bit more room, and we’d love to have newer facilities,” said Northwest Christian Schools Development Director Amy Obringer.

Some of the current elementary classrooms are just 650 square feet in size. New classrooms will be 880 to 960 square feet, said Headmaster Jack Hancock.

The school also will feature a new cafeteria, expanded library and full-size gym.

So far about $7.5 million has been raised to build the school, with administrators working hard to raise the rest, Hancock said.

Northwest Christian Schools has been teaching local students since 1949, first in area churches and then at the Central Avenue campus starting in 1951.

The high school students moved north to Colbert in 1997, with the middle school students joining them in 1999.

Many students are bused to both schools, and a shuttle runs between the two.

“When the elementary school moves up here in two years we will expand the busing system,” Hancock said. “We plan to have 70 percent of the kids in Spokane bused.”

About 750 students attend Northwest Christian Schools, with about 305 in elementary school.

We’re on the move and on the go,” Hancock said.