A Clark County Christian school’s physical expansion into North Clark County is complete.
On Sept. 1, Cornerstone Christian Academy hosted an open house at its new Battle Ground campus ahead of the start of the school year. Located at 715 NW Onsdorff Blvd., the campus was home to Battle Ground Public Schools’ CAM Academy prior to this school year.
Cornerstone bought the building in June of 2021 for about $3.5 million from owner and retired BGPS teacher Gary Albers.
Cornerstone Christian Academy Superintendent Sandra Yager said she is “terribly excited” at the school’s future prospects for growth. Ahead of cutting the ribbon to begin the open house, Yager said the school wasn’t able to get into the building until July 5 to start the transformation, which entailed painting, carpet replacement, lighting adjustments, security and technology upgrades.
She estimated the renovations cost about $800,000.
“It’s been an amazing team effort, and I cannot be more proud of our staff, the contractors and the people that helped us,” Yager said.
The campus began serving kindergarten through ninth grade students this year. An additional high school-aged grade will be added every year until it reaches 12th grade. Yager said the inaugural high school class had 18 students.
Cornerstone has been in existence for nearly 40 years. It was located at Crossroads Community Church in Walnut Grove until 2018 when it relocated to property by the Faith Center Church in Orchards off of state Route 503.
Yager has experience with a new high school, as she served as the principal of Hockinson High School when it opened in 2003. She eventually became superintendent of the Hockinson School District, before leaving in 2019 to lead Cornerstone.
She noted when she arrived at the school, Cornerstone was planning to put a high school at its Orchards location.
“We always thought we would just build there, and then this possibility came, and the donations came,” Yager said.
She said the donations needed to make the purchase of the building came within four days.
“It’s the moments you think are impossible and then God shows up,” Yager said.
Former superintendent and current school board chair Bill Gibbons credited much of the success of finding a second campus to Yager.
“It took me two years to find my replacement,” Gibbons said. “I had people from all over the world.”
Like Yager, Gibbons leaned on his faith as a reason the school was able to expand.
“This building is the result of prayer, (and) all the things that have happened with Cornerstone,” Gibbons said.
Making the move north is an exciting prospect for the school, Gibbons said.
“We want to work with the churches, we want to work with the businesses and we want to work with the parents,” Gibbons said.
After last year’s purchase of the building, Cornerstone leased the building to BGPS for CAM Academy for one year. For this year, CAM Academy moved south to its district’s Lewisville Campus.
Gibbons said the relationship with BGPS has been good, as has the coordination with their neighbors, Battle Ground Baptist Church. For transportation between the new and existing buildings, he said the school received a donated bus to shuttle students from campuses to allow one stop for families with students at both campuses.
Gibbons remarked on the fortune Cornerstone has received in recent years.
“Five years ago we didn’t have a home. Now we have two campuses,” Gibbons said.
