LionHeart Academy, a Christian STEM school, will set up shop at a new location with First Baptist Church of Greenwood near the intersection of Averitt and Stop 18 roads. Renderings submitted by First Baptist Church
A Christian school focused on science, technology, engineering and math will open in Greenwood next year.
First Baptist Church of Greenwood is partnering with LionHeart Children’s Academy, a Dallas, Texas-based Christian education organization, to open a new STEM academy next year near the intersection of Averitt and Stop 18 roads, about a mile-and-a-half south of its current location atop a hill on Meridian Street near Surina Way. First Baptist Church will also move to the new location after selling its current location. The academy, licensed for 213 children, is planned to open sometime between fall of 2023 and January 2024, depending on construction timing, said Pete Wayman, LionHeart CEO.
In order to fund the project for the new $6.3 million, 16,000-square foot building, First Baptist Church sold its current building to Bethel Chin Baptist Church, a Burmese congregation, and borrowed money from a church financing corporation. A capital campaign also raised $600,000 for the project, said Sean Halloway, senior pastor for First Baptist Church.
LionHeart Children’s Academy, which opened its first location in Texas in 2014, now has 14 academies in Texas, Ohio and Colorado. The Greenwood location will be the first in Indiana, and will serve children as young as infants and as old as pre-K. The academy will also provide afterschool care for children up to 12 years old, Wayman said.
“Our goal is to have the children be kindergarten-ready. We graduated about 250 kids out of our academies (this year) and we use various curriculums as we do that,” he said. “We have different educational milestones for each age group. We do parent-teacher conferences, we work on a wide variety of skills, but we also have a Christian curriculum as well, because part of this is delivering this at a church.”
The curriculum includes different academic approaches for different age groups, but all curriculum includes time during the school day for what the academy calls “spiritual development.” For infants, toddlers and two-year-olds, that is paired with social and emotional development, physical development and health, communication, language and literacy, cognitive development and creative arts. The preschool and Pre-K curriculum includes all of those, but adds math, science, technology and social studies, according to the academy’s 2022-23 Family Tour packet.
First Baptist Church will continue to hold services at the new location, and down the road, there is potential for it to become a community destination, said Sean Holloway, senior pastor.
“Phase One will be about $6.3 million, 16,000 square feet. In subsequent phases, we’ll add office spaces, a conference room, a youth center, a multipurpose room, a basketball gymnasium and pickleball,” Holloway said. “Our vision is to construct a building the community can use seven days a week, not just a sanctuary on Sunday mornings.”
The next phase, which would include a recreation center, a youth center for the church, and church offices and conference rooms, could likely be completed within the next couple of years, although further details, such as cost, funding and precise timelines for future phases have not been finalized, he said.
Tuition also hasn’t been determined but will be competitive when compared to other local daycare centers, such as Primrose or Goddard schools. Low-income families will also be eligible for state subsidies to help pay the cost of enrollment, Wayman said.
“I think it’ll have a positive impact on the community because it opens up more childcare seats, which are in short supply,” he said. “Most people like to find childcare within a three-mile radius of where they live, and we’re serving a community.”
