Document text
49 °F Forecast | Road Cams Wednesday, May 11, 2005 Today's News | Shop Our Valley | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery | Contact Us SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Health Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley SHOP OUR VALLEY AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Classified Place an ad TOP JOBS EXTRA Ashland News NIE Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Moving here? eSouthernOregon CUSTOMER SERVICE FAQ's Advertise with us Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend May 10, 2005 Students make their way through Cascade Christian High School�s 100-year-old building beneath clocks bearing local and �eternal� times. The school will present plans Thursday to build a new school in Medford. Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Cascade Christian looks to new site Campus would move from Jacksonville to Medford By MEG LANDERS Mail Tribune Brooke Zielke says she doesn’t mind that she won’t be able to attend classes at the new Cascade Christian High School. "It’s cool for the other kids," said the graduating senior. "I’ve enjoyed it here." Plans to relocate the private religious high school campus from Jacksonville to a site near the Medford airport in the next couple years are moving forward. The school will present an application to the Medford Planning Commission at 7 p.m. Thursday in Council Chambers, City Hall, 411 W. Eighth St., Medford. The proposal calls for a new high school on Chevy Way, off Biddle Road, consisting of an existing gym, plus a two-story education wing, lockers and a kitchen for a total of 98,496 square feet. It could be built in phases, depending on funding. Ray Johnson, principal and superintendent of Cascade Christian High School, said costs have not been finalized yet, but there are some resources to work with. Advertisement "We have our property in the middle of Jacksonville (the current school site), we have 27 acres outside of Jacksonville, (and) we have a number of generous donors," he said. In 1999, Medford businessman John Duke offered a 33,000-square-foot building at 886 Chevy Way, formerly part of Superior Athletic Club, to the school. With a 100-year-old building with remodeling restrictions, an out-of-the-way location and city-imposed rules that the school must operate between 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., school leaders are eager to take advantage of the gift. Johnson said the current Jacksonville location has numerous issues, including a lack of space for sports teams. Now only softball teams play on site, while 13 other sports teams play at sites away from the school. He said at the new location, the school also could have volleyball, girls basketball and boys basketball on-site. They might be able to keep more teams at home if they can swap land with the city of Medford. In June 2003, plans to develop athletic fields on city-owned Table Rock park adjacent to the proposed school site were abandoned by the Medford City Council. Cascade Christian had proposed a joint venture which would involve the high school developing and maintaining ball fields on a 7.5-acre parcel of undeveloped land, which the city would still own. But the city determined it was a constitutional violation for a local government to provide funding or support to a religious institution. In 2004 the school proposed a land swap, but the city determined the proposal wasn’t an equal trade. So now the city and the school are looking for something that is of equal value to swap, said Brian Sjothun, parks and recreation supervisor. The Table Rock park can’t be sold outright because it was purchased with protected federal Land and Water Conservation funds. "We could sell it but we’d have to replace it with something of equal recreational value," said Sjothun. So the latest plan is for the school to purchase a piece of property that the city would be interested in for park land, perhaps some property within the large Southeast Plan development. Sjothun said there were no firm plans to swap with Cascade Christian. "I have not heard anything from them in months," he said. The school is proceeding with plans to move the campus to Medford, whether or not an agreement can be reached with the parks department. "It really is a great location, the access is so good, central to our enrollment area," said Melissa Stiles, community outreach coordinator with Cascade Christian. High school enrollment for this year is 227, said Johnson, and he anticipates 240 next year. He said with a central location, between Medford and Central Point, where a lot of their students live, enrollment likely would increase. Stiles said once the application is approved, the school will pursue funding. "We would start a fund-raising campaign ... late summer, early fall," said Stiles. "We would trust God to provide for the money we need." She said it likely would be two or three years before the school would move to its new location. Reach reporter Meg Landers at 776-4481 or e-mail [email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback Free Music Downloads Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers home equity loans helzberg diamonds Distance Education Diamonds Paris Hilton Online Poker Auto Insurance Mesothelioma Slippers Student Loans Tatoo tcg student loan consolidation teleconferencing Website Design & Marketing Memory Foam Mattress w2 forms Tatoos Mortgage Calculator Free Home-Loan Referrals Payday Loans Advertisement s