A faith-based school in Morden is seeing more interest than it can currently accommodate.
Prairie Crossroads School, which was established in 2020 with 33 students, now has 137 children enrolled.
“We've been seeing a significant increase in enrollment and more demand for enrollment than we can currently satisfy both through staffing and space,” says Travis Penner, the chairman of Prairie Crossroads’ board.
Additional grades, a new location
To accommodate the school’s growth and prepare for more of it, Prairie Crossroads has a few different plans in progress. One is to add two new grade levels to the institution.
“We're a K-10 school that is going to be adding grade 11 next year and grade 12 the following year,” says Penner. “Within a couple of years, we'll be K-12.”
The school will also address its matter of space — it currently operates out of the GMC church in Morden with a staggering nine portable classrooms. The rooms currently occupy the parking lot of the church and the land adjacent to it.
“With the growing demand that we have and the desire to be located a little more centrally to our student body, we've acquired land behind Sun Valley RV on Highway 3,” says Penner. “The goal is to begin construction in spring in order to be open for the fall school year of September 2026.”
Penner says that at present, the school has had to turn away students each year because of its space limitations.
“We're certainly looking forward to having our own space, which will allow for further growth, [and] further programming . . . with a full gym and music room and library,” he says. “We're currently working on the engineering and architectural plans. We'll be working on that through the winter along with fundraising.”
The road to building
With the new facility, Prairie Crossroads is planning to accommodate between 240 and 250 students to start.
Penner says that while the school does receive some funding from the province, the number is about half the amount that public schools receive. While he’s thankful for the funds, he says that they are not enough to construct a new building. Accordingly, Prairie Crossroads School will undertake to raise the money required themselves.
“We'll be looking to raise between four and five million dollars to make the building a reality,” he says. “That’s one of the tasks that we have to work on throughout the fall and the winter.”
To this end, Penner says that the school has completed its charitable registration, so all donations are eligible for a tax deduction. He says that one of the school’s main annual fundraisers is their fish fry, which goes over very well in the community.
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“The community support for our fish fry has been phenomenal and we're blown away each year as the number of fish that we sell grows every year. The dollar amount we raise continues to grow,” he says. “We're really thankful for the community support on that.”
Penner says that in January and February of the new year, more information about 2025’s fish fry will be available.
“Beyond that, we just hold a few smaller fundraisers internally with school families with Co-op gift cards and such,” he says. “We're [also] really looking to have meetings with people to explain our passion and the vision of the school to see if it aligns with their passions, and soliciting donations that way.”
Penner says that Prairie Crossroads School is also looking into grants for a portion of the funding.
“Unfortunately, a lot of the grants typically exclude religious organizations, and so a lot of those avenues are cut off, but there are a number of grants that we are currently looking at,” he says. “[We hope to] apply for and hear back [about those] throughout the winter and next spring.”
Interest in Christian programming
In Penner’s view, community members are drawn to enrolling their children in Prairie Crossroads for a few reasons. The main one is tied to faith.
“Certainly, the primary aspect is the incorporation of faith-based worldviews. We're a Bible-based school. We teach Manitoba curriculum but teach it through the lens of scripture,” he says. “That's one of the main attractions — just an environment that's Christ-infused and incorporates our faith into daily school activities.”
Penner says that the school’s focus on outdoor education and its philosophy of small class sizes also make it attractive to guardians.
A regional school
While Prairie Crossroads is currently located in Morden, Penner says the vision for the school was initially to attract students from all over the Pembina Valley. The school’s new location reflects this.
“In choosing the school name, we did have to have some sort of location indicator in the name, and we were intentional about not using Morden or associating with Morden because our desire was to be regional through the Pembina Valley,” says Penner. “We did start out primarily with Morden and RM of Stanley . . . along with a small contingent of families from Winkler.”
These days, the student body consists of a roughly equal number of children from Winkler and Morden and the RM of Stanley.
“The [new] location was quite strategic,” says Penner. “It was always part of our desire to be between Morden and Winkler so we were a little more centrally located for all of our families.”
A rewarding environment
For Penner, a new location for the school will allow Prairie Crossroads to continue its vision, which he already sees taking shape.
“One of the goals that we had in developing in the school was that we wouldn't be sacrificing education or academics,” he says. “I can say that that's truly the case. [The students are] getting a full academic experience and educational experience just as they would . . . in a public school, just on a smaller scale.”
In addition to academics, Penner also values the faith-based landscape that the school has developed.
“The biggest piece of fulfillment is to be able to use scripture and teach from a biblical worldview, [but not necessarily] in the sense that students are sheltered from views that are contrary to ours,” he says. “To see children experiencing that and growing in their faith throughout the day [is] the most fulfilling aspect of what we do.”
Penner is also thankful for the network of families and others who have supported the school throughout its journey so far. He has faith for the future.
“We’ve been really blessed by the community,” he says. “[We] certainly have a strong belief that if the Lord wants us to build, he will bring people around to support us and that it will happen.”
Penner encourages anyone interested in more information about Prairie Crossroads School to reach out to him via the school’s website.
~With files from Robyn Wiebe~