New Chapter Unfolds For Blue Ridge Christian School
September 19, 2018
By MEGAN WILLIAMS
Daily News- Record 9/19/18
DAYTON — The former Dayton Learning Center has served as an educational institution of some kind since it was built in 1914. It has been the home of kindergartners, middle school and high school students.
It’s legacy as the walls and halls of learning will continue. On Tuesday, the building was dedicated to a new school and a new endeavor. It is now the upper campus for Blue Ridge Christian School. The building will serve high school students this year and some, if not all, of its middle school students, will be taught there next year as well.
The rain cleared out by Tuesday afternoon and about 150 students, parents, staff and community members gathered on the front lawn of the looming building to listen to speakers and to see the ribbon- cutting ceremony.
The old Dayton Learning Center was not the Christian school’s original plan for another campus location.
School officials had been eyeing the Shenandoah Valley Electrical Cooperative building near Mount Crawford. SVEC, which just unveiled its new $ 25 million complex north of Mount Crawford, sold its Dinkel Avenue facility to BRCS for $ 3.4 million in 2016.
However, it became increasingly evident the school wasn’t going to get the building in time for the start of school, said Carol Hilliard, Blue Ridge Christian third- grade teacher and parent.
“It was a God thing,” Hilliard said. “We were renting a local church for four years, but we needed a space to call our own.”
BRCS has been holding classes in the former Bridgewater Elementary School since its founding 28 years ago. In 2014, Blue Ridge began a high school program with freshman and sophomore classes, expanding the curriculum over the next three years to include the 12th grade and graduating its first class last school year.
The Rockingham County Board of Supervisors sold the learning center building to Blue Ridge Christian School in June for $400,000.
Rockingham Academy on Pleasant Valley Road in Harrisonburg replaces the Dayton Learning Center.
“As far as I know everyone is excited,” Hilliard said.
She’s been a Blue Ridge Christian teacher for 10 years and a parent of students who attend the school for 13 years. Her oldest daughter is a freshman at Liberty University and her youngest is a freshman at the new campus of Blue Ridge Christian.
“It’s nice inside,” Hilliard said. “The improvements have been great.”
Although the lower school campus remains in Bridgewater, the buildings share the same architect giving both a similar feel.
“We are delighted to have a home in Dayton as well as Bridgewater,” said Principal Eric Codding.
Greg Godsey, former chairman of the board of directors for the Harrisonburg Rockingham Chamber of Commerce, Dayton Councilman Jeff Daly and Rockingham Supervisor Sallie Wolfe- Garrison were among those speaking at Tuesday’s ceremony.
“I know you have so many memories of this school,” Wolfe- Garrison told the crowd, adding that she hopes Blue Ridge Christian School will occupy the building for another 100 years. On May 1, 1990, Christian parents from across the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia gathered and decided to launch Blue Ridge Christian School, a parent- owned, nondenominational Christian school.
Blue Ridge Christian School students sing during a benediction for their new upper school location in the old Dayton Learning Center Tuesday afternoon.
Blue Ridge Christian School Principal Eric Codding speaks during a ribbon-cutting for the new upper school location in the old Dayton Learning Center Tuesday afternoon.
BRCS Principal Eric Codding talks with Dayton Elementary alumnus Bob Manning of Harrisonburg during a tour of the new upper school location in the old Dayton Learning Center on Tuesday afternoon.
Daily News- Record 9/19/18
DAYTON — The former Dayton Learning Center has served as an educational institution of some kind since it was built in 1914. It has been the home of kindergartners, middle school and high school students.
It’s legacy as the walls and halls of learning will continue. On Tuesday, the building was dedicated to a new school and a new endeavor. It is now the upper campus for Blue Ridge Christian School. The building will serve high school students this year and some, if not all, of its middle school students, will be taught there next year as well.
The rain cleared out by Tuesday afternoon and about 150 students, parents, staff and community members gathered on the front lawn of the looming building to listen to speakers and to see the ribbon- cutting ceremony.
The old Dayton Learning Center was not the Christian school’s original plan for another campus location.
School officials had been eyeing the Shenandoah Valley Electrical Cooperative building near Mount Crawford. SVEC, which just unveiled its new $ 25 million complex north of Mount Crawford, sold its Dinkel Avenue facility to BRCS for $ 3.4 million in 2016.
However, it became increasingly evident the school wasn’t going to get the building in time for the start of school, said Carol Hilliard, Blue Ridge Christian third- grade teacher and parent.
“It was a God thing,” Hilliard said. “We were renting a local church for four years, but we needed a space to call our own.”
BRCS has been holding classes in the former Bridgewater Elementary School since its founding 28 years ago. In 2014, Blue Ridge began a high school program with freshman and sophomore classes, expanding the curriculum over the next three years to include the 12th grade and graduating its first class last school year.
The Rockingham County Board of Supervisors sold the learning center building to Blue Ridge Christian School in June for $400,000.
Rockingham Academy on Pleasant Valley Road in Harrisonburg replaces the Dayton Learning Center.
“As far as I know everyone is excited,” Hilliard said.
She’s been a Blue Ridge Christian teacher for 10 years and a parent of students who attend the school for 13 years. Her oldest daughter is a freshman at Liberty University and her youngest is a freshman at the new campus of Blue Ridge Christian.
“It’s nice inside,” Hilliard said. “The improvements have been great.”
Although the lower school campus remains in Bridgewater, the buildings share the same architect giving both a similar feel.
“We are delighted to have a home in Dayton as well as Bridgewater,” said Principal Eric Codding.
Greg Godsey, former chairman of the board of directors for the Harrisonburg Rockingham Chamber of Commerce, Dayton Councilman Jeff Daly and Rockingham Supervisor Sallie Wolfe- Garrison were among those speaking at Tuesday’s ceremony.
“I know you have so many memories of this school,” Wolfe- Garrison told the crowd, adding that she hopes Blue Ridge Christian School will occupy the building for another 100 years. On May 1, 1990, Christian parents from across the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia gathered and decided to launch Blue Ridge Christian School, a parent- owned, nondenominational Christian school.
Blue Ridge Christian School students sing during a benediction for their new upper school location in the old Dayton Learning Center Tuesday afternoon.
Blue Ridge Christian School Principal Eric Codding speaks during a ribbon-cutting for the new upper school location in the old Dayton Learning Center Tuesday afternoon.
BRCS Principal Eric Codding talks with Dayton Elementary alumnus Bob Manning of Harrisonburg during a tour of the new upper school location in the old Dayton Learning Center on Tuesday afternoon.
