Work begins on new private high school

Construction crews started work Thursday on the new Wolf River Lutheran High School, culminating years of planning and fundraising by supporters of the private Shawano County school.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Principal Caroline Bedroske said of the 25,000-square-foot school finally under construction on River Bend Road just south of Shawano in the town of Belle Plaine.

If construction progresses as intended, the private school’s students and faculty will relocate into the new school when classes convene this fall for the 2017-18 school year.

The school has outgrown its building in Cecil, and boosters have been working about 20 years to complete plans and raise funds for the new school’s six classrooms, gymnasium, commons, office space and mezzanine.

Fundraising efforts were behind schedule as recently as last year, but donations in recent months have pushed the campaign to the $1.5 million mark needed to launch construction.

Booster Ron Klosterman, a former member of the school’s board, said he was thrilled to see construction crews getting down to work.

“There are a lot of people who didn’t think we’d be here,” Klosterman said. “If you want to be someone who gets things done, you’ve got to be willing to go for the long haul.”

The project is being led by Green Bay-based Bayland Buildings Inc., with assistance so far from Kallies Electric Inc. of Shawano and Performance Excavating Inc. of Pulaski.

Wolf River Lutheran, which holds classes in a former elementary school in Cecil, purchased the River Bend Road property in 1999 after years of discussion about how to expand the school’s Christian-based mission.

Enrollment has been growing steadily and is expected to reach about 40 students next year in ninth through 12th grade.

The new school has been designed to accommodate twice the enrollment.

“It’s truly a blessing from where we started,” said Dennie Genke, the school board president.

When the current school year ends, students and faculty will vacate the existing building, 220 S. Zachow St., to make way for another local church group that has purchased the property. Furnishings and supplies will be put into storage until the new school becomes available, possibly by August.

Bedroske said students have been watching the construction site on River Bend Road and breathlessly reporting any sign of movement.

“The students are really excited for what it all is going to mean,” she said.

School leaders held a groundbreaking ceremony at the site in November 2015 in hopes of spurring enough donations to start construction and build the school for the 2016-17 school year. Donations remained sluggish, however, and officials waited several months longer before fundraising picked up.

An anonymous donor has since pledged $200,000 as a matching grant, to match all incoming donations dollar for dollar.

Genke said seeing construction under way and knowing that the new school is just a few months away makes all the years of hard work worthwhile.

“It’s been a lot of work, that’s for sure,” he said. “But it’s finally going to happen.”