ECS launches $10M capital campaign to expand, upgrade facilities
John Klyce
Memphis Business Journal
Given the global pandemic and tattered economy, it might seem like an inopportune time to launch a three-year, $10 million building campaign.
Yet, just last week, that’s exactly what Evangelical Christian School (ECS) did.
"We felt like, in talking with our community, that this was the right thing to do, and the right step to take, knowing full well that we are in a difficult situation: in our city, our state, and our country," Braxton Brady, the head of school, told MBJ. "We fully understand the situations that are happening, but the momentum in our school is going forward. And, our growth is moving at such a rapid rate, that we felt like it was the right time to do it."
Recently, the school has grown significantly. Two years ago, ECS added 160 new students, and this year, it added 198. Over the past two years, its lower school has gone from having just over 200 students to 333.
Called the Building for Life Vision Campaign, the new initiative is raising funds to expand, or upgrade, facilities and programs. So far, it’s off to a good start. In the first week, the school raised over $244,000, blazing past its $150,000 target.
ECS plans on using the money to make improvements in a variety of areas. A big component of the campaign is creating an early childhood wing on its lower school campus — construction is already underway — located at Wolf River Boulevard and Forest-Hill Irene Road.
The expansion, designed by Archimania and built by Grinder Taber & Grinder, will have eight new classrooms, and is necessary, Braxton explained, given the lower school’s enrollment increases. This campus will also gain a new early childhood playground with kinetic play spaces.
Beyond the early childhood wing, ECS hopes to bolster its Spring Sports Venue on the middle and upper school campus — adjacent to the back half of Shelby Farms Park — by building a concession stand, dining area, locker rooms, and restrooms.
The fine arts department will gain dressing room improvements, an updated sound system, and added storage space. The K-12 STEM program will receive new labs.
In addition to this, ECS hopes to enhance security, by adding fencing along the play field at the lower school campus, and installing a guardhouse and gates at the middle and upper school campus.
Teachers and students will also benefit from less tangible opportunities, as the institution wants to provide more chances for professional development and increase the endowment for need-based tuition assistance.
"The overall goal is taking a very wholistic approach to the campaign itself," Brady said. "I think a lot of times, schools can go down only one road. And what we decided, is that we don’t want to go down just the athletic road or just the academic road. So, in our design of the plan, we wanted to make sure there were abilities to help every single student in our school.
