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Lafayette Christian School now has room for five more classrooms of kindergartners. 

LCS cut the ribbon on the school’s new Community Kindergarten Building during a ceremony hosted by the LaGrange-Troup Chamber of Commerce on Thursday.

“We wanted to partner with our community. That’s why it’s called the Community Kindergarten Building,” Mark Davis, Development Director for LCS, said.

“We want to be a partner with our community to help children learn to read,” Davis said, “We want to reach students at a young age. If we can reach those students at that young age, doesn’t matter where they go after Lafayette Christian, they will have that foundation of reading that they can build upon and be a stronger member of our community.”

The new K4 and K5 building has space for 144 students. Three of the school’s eight classrooms are already full.

“We’re excited to see what the community or what the future brings for us. We hope to have this building full by the start of next year,” Davis said.

Davis said Lafayette Christian is growing about 10% per year, so they were looking at expansion and how to help the community, as well as the schools. Before the new kindergarten building was finished, LCS had kindergarten classes, but they were across several different buildings that were not together.

“Our philosophy was, if we could put them together, then maybe it would help them,” Davis said. “Instead of being put with different age groups, there’ll be months to themselves and conduct education a little bit better.”

Davis said the idea of the community kindergarten building came out of discussions with the Callaway Foundation, who helped with the project, about the education landscape in Troup County.

“If we built a community kindergarten building and allowed as many students to come in as possible from Troup County, it doesn’t matter where they go after that age, they will have a foundation,” Davis said, explaining the philosophy behind the building.

Davis said it was a blessing too, because First Baptist Church on the Square had just ended their kindergarten and daycare program. At the time, LCS’s Early Learning Center was able to take in about 60 of those children but there wasn’t room for everyone.

“We didn’t have this building,” Davis said, “It was a true blessing how the things fell into place, but that’s really how the building came into fruition.”

Davis said they want kids to come to LCS and be there for the long haul, but if they can’t, they’ll have a strong foundation with kindergarten, then wherever they go, they will be able to build upon that.