Month: August 2025

Cameron Montemayor

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) — A multi-million dollar expansion effort for St. Joseph’s largest private school is quickly rounding into form on Gene Field Road.

Students and faculty at St. Joseph Christian will be welcomed back this school year to a large-scale, 23,000-square-foot facility nearing completion, a long-term boost for academics, athletics and the school’s growing enrollment.

“We’ve had various remodels and expansions and changes over the years, but this is definitely our largest to date,” said Glory Fagan, St. Joseph Christian director of development. “Our current enrollment is a little over 500, and with this, our capacity will actually rise to about 700.”

This rendering, courtesy of St. Joseph Christian and Creal, Clark and Seifert, shows how the $10 million facility will look once complete.

Called Nehemiah 2.0, the project is headlined by a new 1,100-seat gymnasium with a mezzanine, a facility that will pair with a 650-seat gym already in place, in addition to new locker rooms, a commons area, concessions and five new classrooms, including a music room.

Once finished, spectators will be able to stand on the mezzanine and view both gyms, which will be partially separated by a wall, providing enough space for three different games to take place concurrently.

“The hope is that our Christmas program will be able to be held here. So that’s in December. That’s the big hope,” she said.

Two new video scoreboards will also be constructed on the southwest and northeast corners of the gymnasium, allowing for instant replay and fan engagement opportunities.

“If we have a graduation or a program, they’ll be able to see, you know, little Johnny on the big screen,” Fagan said.

A lead construction worker with Lee Grover Construction works on the gymnasium’s mezzanine on Tuesday in St. Joseph.

Fundraising efforts for the project kicked off in October of 2023 with an initial budget of around $9.3 million, a price that grew with the addition of an elevator for improved accessibility. Fagan said the school has roughly $300,000 in funds left to secure.

The interdenominational school provides biblically-based education for pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, growing from around 300 students pre-2020 to roughly 500 students now.

“When COVID-19 hit, we didn’t know if the bottom would drop out or what. But as it turned out, we had exponential growth. And so we soon saw the need for expansion. And, you know, we’re building for the future.”

The 2025-26 school year is scheduled to begin Aug. 19 for grades first through 12th. Kindergarteners will start school the next day.

Fagan praised an extensive list of donors for helping make the project possible, to the benefit of current and future classes of Lions.

“We’ve had some generous donors, we’ve had some grants, we’ve had people who’ve given a little bit monthly, just in every fashion,” she said. “Every bit of it has been donated.”

Two construction workers with Lee Grover Construction work on the west-facing wall of the new gymnasium on Tuesday in St. Joseph.

Click here to follow the original article.

Praji Ghosh

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) — Educators from across the region came together in St. Joseph for a special summer training hosted by the Missouri Council of Teachers of Mathematics (MCTM). 

The two-day event focused on helping teachers strengthen their classroom instruction and improve how students learn math. 

By working together and sharing ideas, the goal is to help students better understand mathematical concepts—and do so more efficiently and effectively. 

“There were a group of teachers to boost student thinking and their engagement, it not about giving the kids tricks or tips but conceptual understanding so they know what they’re doing in class,” Shantell Cross, instructional coach said.  

At MCTM summer training, the focus was on changing how math is taught—starting with how teachers approach problem-solving in the classroom. 

Instead of simply giving students the answers, instructors were encouraged to dig deeper—guiding students to understand the why behind each step. The idea is to strengthen comprehension from the ground up. 

More than 250 educators from across Missouri took part in the two-day event, which is part of an ongoing statewide effort to improve math instruction.  

“The way that I look at this that teachers gain their skill set and they start to think about mathematics differently than what they have in the past and opening up that mindset can help them teach the kids about math,” Cross said.  

Cross says that when students are encouraged to use less traditional problem-solving methods, they tend to grasp the concepts more clearly—and often see better results on tests.  

“Whenever it comes to long term success with math, it helps kids understand  what I am learning now is going to be applicable to what I do in the future regardless of what they do in the future educationally,” Cross said.  

The training aims to move teachers away from giving flat answers when students struggle, and instead support them in building their own understanding.  

Ultimately, the hope is to help students become critical thinkers and confident problem-solvers—skills that go far beyond the classroom.  

Click here to follow the original article.