Lutheran high school gearing up fundraising effort

Wolf River Lutheran High School will hold a Family Fun Fair and Auction on Saturday at Boarders Inn & Suites in Shawano.

It will be the first major public event since a fundraising effort was launched in April to support building a new high school, but proceeds Saturday will go toward meeting the school’s expenses this year.

“It is just going to help us pay for this year and to keep the school running,” said Karen Baker, secretary of the school’s board of directors. “This is mainly for helping us get through the year.”

A larger event, featuring astronaut Jerry Ross as speaker, is being planned in November.

The school earlier this year announced a fundraising campaign to finance building a new school, estimated to cost $1.3 million, on 25 acres the school owns at the intersection of state Highways 22 and 29 in Shawano.

Baker said the campaign has barely gotten started.

“We hope to have something going within a year or two,” she said. “It is not only toward the capital campaign but to also make people aware of Wolf River Lutheran.

“The location has been the problem. We are trying to get people to think about coming to our school.”

After opening in 2004 and initially holding classes at St. James Lutheran in Shawano, Wolf River Lutheran High School moved into the former Cecil Elementary School in 2012.

Enrollment in 2013-14 was 18. The staff included four Lutheran-trained teachers and Principal Jay Lindsey, the school’s first full-time administrator.

Lindsey resigned to accept a position in Plymouth and was replaced this year by Carolyn Bedroske, who also teaches history.

The school has 14.25 students enrolled for the 2014-15 school-year.

During his tenure, Lindsey said the Cecil building no longer meets the high school’s needs as it expands academic and extracurricular offerings and that the future of WRLHS could hinge on a new building.

The proposed 18,000-square-foot building would consist of five classrooms, a gymnasium with two locker rooms, office space and other basic needs.

The school early this year hired Cornerstone Stewardship Ministry, based in Lake Mills, to conduct a survey to determine the level of support for such a capital undertaking.

After reviewing the survey results, the school’s board of directors voted in April to begin the capital fundraising campaign with the assistance of Cornerstone.

“They think it is a really good idea because it benefits the community, and right now we are trying to get other church leaders involved,” Baker said. “We are just starting to go around to collect money.”

The campaign, as initially outlined, was expected to run until June 2015 with the goal of raising at least $800,000.

The initial, or silent, phase of the campaign began with organizers soliciting potential lead gifts and educating area Lutheran congregations about a potential “Partnership in Ministry” campaign.

In a partnership campaign, funds would be raised for not only the high school, but also for area congregations and could be used as they see fit.

With that approach, Jeffrey Davis, a managing partner with Cornerstone, speculated the campaign could raise an estimated $1.8 million to $2.4 million.

The bulk of the funding is estimated to come from four congregations. Three of them — St. James in Shawano, St. Paul in Bonduel and St. John in Suring — operate elementary schools. The fourth congregation would likely be St. Jakobi in the town of Richmond because of its close proximity to where the school would be built, according to Davis.

Proponents also have suggested St. Martin Lutheran Church in Clintonville might be interested, as the proposed location would be more convenient for Clintonville parents.