Valor Preparatory Academy is in the middle of a major expansion, moving much of its campus into a newly renovated building on Bosque Boulevard that school leaders say will finally give the growing private school room to breathe.
The school is converting a former shopping center at Bosque Boulevard and Highway 6 into a multi-phase campus that will eventually house all grade levels, from pre-kindergarten through high school.
Inside the building, classrooms are beginning to take shape as crews install ceilings, walls and flooring. Outside, trees are being cleared to make way for outdoor learning spaces.
For head of school Wes Kanawyer, the move is about relieving years of pressure caused by steady enrollment growth.
“We were growing naturally to fill out two sections, and even that was really hamstringing us as far as facilities,” Kanawyer said.
Valor opened this school year with more than 500 students, the highest enrollment in its history. Kanawyer said the current Sanger Avenue campus has become increasingly cramped, with teachers and students often competing for space.
“One of our logic school teachers is sitting down on the floor in an office just working while her class is probably being used by another teacher,” he said. “That’s how tight it is around our current campus.”
The school has also struggled with parking and shared spaces as it has expanded.
Over the last several years, Valor has added a third section — or class — to kindergarten through fourth grades. As those students move up, the goal is for each grade to eventually have three sections.
“That way you inform culture — you don’t inherit it,” Kanawyer said. “We’re doing that intentionally.”
Once the Bosque Boulevard campus is fully built out, Valor expects to serve about 660 students — roughly three sections per grade. Kanawyer said that size allows the school to sustain programs in athletics, fine arts and academics.
“If you’re too small, you have limited social groups. Fine arts and athletics are harder to sustain, and your academic offerings dwindle,” he said.
Students in grades six through 12 are expected to move into the new campus next month, once phase one construction is complete. That first phase includes classrooms, a two-story library, administrative offices and a cafeteria.
Future phases will add a gym, athletic facilities, more classrooms, a fine arts wing and a chapel. Parts of the building currently house tenants including Brazos Theatre of Waco and a former Jazzercise studio.
Kanawyer said the full build-out will take at least two more years.
“Nobody wants to be separated. It is absolutely the plan to bring everyone together,” he said.
Valor plans to apply for Texas Education Freedom Accounts — the state’s new school voucher program launching next school year — but Kanawyer said the school is not looking to grow beyond its planned capacity.
“We have a lot of families at Valor that really sacrifice to make this happen,” he said. “The education savings accounts will serve a lot of our families in making this sustainable.”
The renovation and expansion project is budgeted at $20 million. Kanawyer said the school has raised a little more than $11 million so far.
Once all students move to the Bosque Boulevard campus, Valor plans to sell its current Sanger Avenue property.
Several tenants will remain in the Bosque Square Shopping Center alongside the school, including D-Bat Waco, Central Texas Driving School and the Natural Health Center of Waco.
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