West Port Experiment

Some of you may be aware that our congregation, the Presbyterian Reformed Church of Corbin City, New Jersey, is connected with a K-12 Christian school. Westminster Christian Academy provides area families with an affordable education and is committed to the Reformed faith as expressed in the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646). Several of our members are teachers, and we have a good number of students attending. At present, the school meets in a Presbyterian church in Ocean City. But as the Lord has blessed us with some means—and as our congregation is definitely in a growth mode with many young families having children—we would like to build or obtain a suitable property of our own to house the school.

At present, we are considering three options. First, we could demolish our present church building and build a larger school building with a chapel that would house our worship services. Then there is also an old municipal building up the road, which actually used to be the high school for Upper Township earlier in the 20th century. This is attractive for a number of reasons one of which is its close proximity to us. These two options could well be within our present financial capacities.

A third option, however, is about 30 minutes to the west of our church, in Port Norris. There is a very large school building there with many classrooms, kitchen facilities, and a full, rather new gym. The school district has closed it following consolidation. It is worth ____ million, but the price is quite low because the area has been in some population and economic decline. That being said, many of us think the town has a future with its supply of more affordable housing; and some of our young families have already been looking to purchase in the area.

If we were to consider this school in Port Norris, we would really like to explore possible partners, whether investors, businesses, educational institutions, or non-profits. Even finding one or a few lesser partners in S. Jersey could help us lean towards a commitment to purchase the school as a possible multi-use facility. As it stands, WCA only holds classes three days a week from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. And not only could the property be availably around those hours, there are the weekends and the entire summer where we would not foresee WCA use.

Do you have any ideas? Or can you think of other leads, contacts who may be interested in some way? Please share or drop us a note at michael@reformedparish.com.