Dear Friends and Family of TCS,
We have recently finished another great year at Temple Christian, and we are just one week away from the start of the new school year. Thanks to the teachers, staff, and others who support TCS to make Temple a beacon of light in Northwest Ohio.
This past year has seen another positive fiscal result for the school and daycare. Our fiscal year closed July 31st, and God continues to bless TCS. We are fiscally more fluid today than we have ever been in 42 years of operation. Praise God for His blessings!
Early in 2019, the school board voted to send a letter of intent regarding the former Home Depot building on Cable Road in Lima. To maximize the benefit of our 501(c)(3) tax status for the seller, we were hoping for a high appraisal; unfortunately, the property did not come back as highly appraised as we had anticipated. This does not mean the building cannot or would not be a good fit for us, but we are now pursuing other options in addition to the Home Depot building. Nonetheless, it’s important to note that we are a little ahead of ourselves. We’ve just finished the first year of our 5-year plan. Our primary focus for the first 3 years is to increase enrollment at the school and daycare. The current building maxes out at 350 students in K-12 and the daycare maxes out at 60 children. We have secured the use of two additional rooms from the Lima Baptist Temple to enable the daycare to grow. The board felt it was important to expand the daycare and eliminate the waiting list, as this is a great feeder system for the school. Someone asked me the other day if the school will close if we don’t find a new building; I can emphatically answer “NO!” It would just mean that TCS would need to negotiate a new lease price with the Lima Baptist Temple. LBT very generously voted to give us a 5-year lease at $1.00 per year. However, the board sees the benefit of an independent facility, and we continue to work toward that goal.
As many of you know, to serve our goal of growing the school, we were planning to run an exclusive bus route to outlying communities in northwest Ohio. Around 7 families reached out with interest, some new students and some existing. The board voted to work with the Lima Regional Transit Authority on our bus routes; however, disappointingly, the number given by the RTA recently doubled the original cost quoted to the School. This was a deal breaker for us. While we are disappointed by the news, we are still hard at work quickly evaluating other options so we can deliver busing at TCS. Thank you for your patience as we continue to develop our transportation options.
With the ending of this last school year, we saw the retirement of two elementary teachers with a combined 81 years of ministering and teaching at TCS. Mrs. Lawrence (5th Grade) and Mrs. Brorein (3rd Grade), you will be missed! The Lord also lead Mrs. Whitman (4th Grade) and her family to Oklahoma. Mrs. Phillips retired from teaching Art in the High School after 17 years of ministry there. May God continue to bless you and your families for all that you have done at our school. We have once again seen God’s favor on TCS as He has supplied us with fantastic teachers to fill these open positions.
Over the summer, we tested the air quality within the Jr. and Sr. High buildings. This has been a point of concern in years past due to all of the water penetrating through the roof. After the roof repair and the installation of new windows, I’m happy to report that we received an excellent rating on our indoor air quality test. We are in the final stages of wrapping the Jr. High brick building to improve the aesthetics. This should be complete in a few weeks.
We are praising God that our enrollment continues to increase, with the last two years seeing growth. This is due in part to the marketing campaign the board has been running; I hope you have noticed the social media presence, billboards, and commercials. But the single biggest factor in the growth of enrollment is you. There is no better way for us to gain new students than through the word of mouth conversations you have with your friends and relatives. Thank you, and please keep up the good work!
Please let myself or any of the other board members know if you have questions or feedback. We humbly ask for your prayers, and we are honored to serve the TCS family. Some of us will be at the school for the student orientation on August 22nd. Please feel free to stop us and give your thoughts and feedback — we would love to hear from you.
In Christ
Jason Szuch
School Board Chairman
419-204-7664 (Mobile)
szuchj@tcspioneers.org
Temple Christian Schools