Stones bearing witness

We are still not at the end of our pilgrimage; and we are not certain about what the future will bring for the school. Yet we can confidently claim our faith – just as our edifices confess – that the Lord has helped us thus far. With the hope that He will continuously lead us, we are all-the-more grateful and praise His name.

Plans are made for an outdoor classroom plus two new classrooms are opened on the ground floor of the New Building. Eventually they will serve as Arts and Crafts center and Music and Dance studio; yet temporarily we need to use them as regular classrooms plus need to fundraise for the necessary Arts supplies and Music equipment.

New chemistry and physics lab are opened and equipped.

While a full-size gym still has long ways to go, we purchase a 40 seater school bus to shuttle the students to a sport hall in the neighboring town.

We have a major reason to celebrate, as we send out to universities world-wide our first graduating class.

In January we launch major construction of a new dining hall with seating capacity over 240. The ground floor of the New Building thus serves all our feeding needs, including complete kitchen equipment. Two more classrooms are added on the third floor of the New Building.

By changing the layout of the 3^rd floor of the New Building we have prepared adequate space for 4 years of high schoolers and the entire middle school, including specialized ESL classrooms, IT lab, install interactive white boards, school furniture and lockers.

During the year 2015 we finally manage to come with an adequate and permanent solution to cover our school building needs. The Christian Education Foundation arranges for a 2 million Euros bank loan and we purchase former Printing press building, neighbouring our current school property. In June we begin a major reconstruction work targeted to house three years of high school students and all middle school. At the end of September, we are finally ready to move the education process into what we call “The New School Building”. Meanwhile the entire building of an enlarged Preschool is being reconstructed, with two large-size classrooms, two bathrooms, changing room, allowing for upscaling the Preschool to house 70 children.

We are continuing in preparing a new dining hall in the New School Building.

Pavilion A is completely renovated and thermally insulated, including windows exchange; we manage all this during summer months so that no obstacles are caused to the education process. We also reconstruct one floor of a school ca. 1 mile north of us, where we move the freshmen and sophomores.

For the first time we open three classes of first graders, a new tradition. All-the-more do we realize the necessity of finding and settling in a permanent home for the school, especially since the High school is still about to grow for three more years.

We are happy to announce the launching of the Lutheran bilingual high school, with two classes of first-ever freshmen. We house the high-schoolers in the “Historical gymnasium building” in honor of and remembering the almost 150 year dream of higher Christian education in Martin.

To summarize: we are “occupying” six rented buildings downtown Martin.

A new Pavilion A is being reconstructed, ready to be used at the opening of the new school year. On the ground floor we house the 8^th and 9^th grade, on the upper floor we launch Preschool with two classrooms. So far we have 34 preschoolers; two classrooms are equipped with new and used furniture.

During the summer break we finish reconstruction of the Pavilion B, with three classrooms, 2 offices and new bathrooms. We make plans to start building a school library.

We reconstruct the former dining hall in the rented school space, upgrading it to almost 90 seats, sufficient to cover our current needs. One new classroom is dedicated to practical/outdoor education. We paint the gym, install the lab equipment and internet connections. We purchase new desks and whiteboards for all new classrooms. We also purchase new desks and furniture for teacher offices and tables and chairs for cafeteria.

The most important milestone is that we manage to get a hold of a former public preschool building, owned by the city of Martin, into a 50-year lease. The school is right across the fence from our property; we take down the fence! During the summer we renovate the building, creating a space for 3 new classrooms, 3 offices, storage room and bathrooms. We can also use the second half of the building, still operated by a private school, to feed lunches to our students.

Just to illustrate: More than 160 volunteers from among our parents, church members and American partners volunteered in the summer construction work. We use this tradition of volunteering continuously, as the school keeps on growing.

We purchase the equipment for physics, chemistry and biology lab; in the summer a new lab in “the Pink building” is put into use.

We open two new classrooms in the “Old gymnasium building” (alias “the Dorm”), as the Bible school´s programs are transferred to the University of Žilina. Graduates of these university programs are beginning to teach at our school as ESL and Religion teachers and also as afterschool teachers and assistants. We open two new first grade classes.

We can take a short break from the hectic time of finding adequate space; we can take a deep breath as we can now use the classrooms of the Bible school building (as the Bible school was able to make alterations to their educational program). Here we gain two classrooms, ESL classroom and a small computer lab. In August we renovate outside playground. Grades 1-4 of the school are complete.

Second floor of the same building is continuously being reconstructed, with two new classrooms and a teacher´s office. Thus in September we welcome 42 new first graders and have a long-term lease of the space available for us to use.

In the spring we begin communication with Živena, one of the historical institutions in Martin, two blocks from our school, in order to rent and renovate their edifice to house more classrooms. We begin fundraising targeted at changing the windows, reconstruction of teacher´s office, building brand new heating system and electrical circuits. Despite shortage of time, with the help of God we manage to prepare two classrooms, one ESL classroom and a space for afterschool activities; and we are ready to welcome 40 new first graders.

We plan to open a new class, similar size to the previous year; yet we hate to let down all who are interested. Therefore, we open a second class, total of 34 first graders in the upper floor of the Zborový dom (known as the “Pink building” due to the original color of its façade) and use the rest of the year to search for more adequate teaching space.

We open the first class of 25 first graders. With great help from the Bible school and Martin Lutheran congregation we have basic teaching space, including a small gym (used till today). For lunches we use the cafeteria of public school next door, and we use the first school bus (for the next ten years to be known as the “Yellow van”) to daily shuttle children from neighboring villages.

We have the desire and plans to start the school, yet we do not have enough students. Only 10 families were brave enough to sign up their first graders into our school, therefore we postpone the first opening till next year.