Now that McCurdy Charter School is set to move into its new school building, personnel from the organization that owns the land where it currently sits, want to open a multi-purpose community center in hopes of addressing the area’s many needs.
McCurdy Ministries officials announced a plan that would transform the soon-to-be empty school buildings into the McCurdy Ministries Community Center, after all the equipment and other supplies are moved into the new building.
The Center will be anchored by Cole Adult Ministries, which will be housed in the old Cole High School building.
The Adult Ministry will specialize in helping students prepare for the high school equivalency exam, commonly referred to as the GED or General Education Development test. McCurdy Ministries officials plan to work out an agreement with Northern New Mexico College to supply the adult education instructors, who will teach the classes.
Northern New Mexico College Provost Ivan Lopez-Hurtado confirmed Northern officials have discussed the matter with Ministry personnel, but nothing “concrete” has come of those discussions.
The Center, in addition to hosting GED classes, will also offer many other self-help programs, according to Diana Loomis, McCurdy Ministries’ director of development and church relations.
“The high school will become an adult education center that will house GED ESL (English as a Second Language), literacy, financial literacy and parenting support groups,” Loomis told the city of Española’s Planning and Zoning Committee, during an April presentation.
Transforming the Cole Building, which will also house the Ministries administrative offices, is estimated to cost about $1.7 million.
Church officials would also like to use the Education Center’s conference room as a space for helping Valley citizens improve their reading skills.
The Hovermale Elementary School building will be converted into a Children’s Ministry that will ultimately become home to an early childhood center and an after-school program for older elementary-aged students. Transforming the building into the Children’s Ministry would cost an estimated $1,770,464.
Loomis told the Commission that she hopes to raise some of the money for the Cole and Hovermale renovations through a $1.5 million United States Department of Agriculture Community Connect Grant.
The rest of the money will come from various fundraising efforts.
McCracken Gym, according to the plans, will eventually become McCracken Teen Center. The idea is to create a partnership with the Española Teen Center, an existing teen-serving organization.
“(McCurdy) Ministries is in discussions with the YMCA Teen Center, which has an outstanding program on the west side of Española, about expanding their program to a second site on the McCurdy (Community Center’s) Campus,” Loomis said.
Most of McCracken’s estimated $1.8 million renovations will work to address the building’s energy inefficiencies and improve its compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Transforming Bachman Hall will be the project’s most expensive effort. It will cost an approximate $3.6 million to turn the building into a retreat center that will have housing for volunteers, a cafeteria and an industrial kitchen.
“The new kitchen would mean we could operate a summer food program,” Loomis said. “We could cooperate with the Food Depot and cook for all the preschools and charter schools. We can make a huge difference on combating hunger in this community.”
Rounding out the community center wish list is a bus barn and improvements to six buildings throughout the campus, that would become what Loomis characterized as a “nonprofit hub.”
Once the six buildings are renovated, church officials plan to rent them to area self-help and governmental organizations.
The idea is to provide the community with a centralized location where they can obtain life-changing services.
It is not clear what type of services can be obtained through the planned “nonprofit hub” because that portion of the proposed project is still slated for some time in the future.
“Our mission is to help students and their families in the Española Valley succeed in school and in life,” Loomis said. “We want to welcome nonprofit service providers and governmental agencies into the buildings on our campus, as long as they are consistent with our purpose. People aren’t going to have to travel from one end of the County to the next to get the services that will help them transform their lives.”
With the demolition and a planned bus barn, the overall Community Center Project is expected to cost an estimated $10.7 million.
Sanjay Engineer from Albuquerque’s FBT Architects, the firm that drafted the master plan, said although the plan is subject to change, he believes church officials would like to get started as soon as possible.
“While it is a living document, the Ministries have a target,” Engineer said. “I think they want to implement this thing as quickly and as expeditiously as possible.”
To raise the capital needed to complete the Community Center Project, Loomis said the church was planning on hiring an employee who would focus on fundraising efforts.
“We will be looking for grants for some of the programs and we will be looking for public support,” she said.
The project will take place in three phases, starting some time in August and will continue until September 2018.
The first phase would include improvements to the Cole High School, so it could serve as the Adult Education Center.
Loomis declined to comment or to answer any other questions regarding the Project, so it is unclear if the church has hired a grant writer.