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By Steve Weatherbe
WHEN the Comox Valley Christian Education Society ran into difficulties with its
school at Merville, it went to Courtenay’s Northgate Foursquare Church for help.
It looks like it went to the right place. Now the school is hoping to take over
a vacant public school next year, with twice the room – in Comox, whose downtown adjoins Courtenay’s). The society also hopes to build its own $7 million, K – 12 facility a few years from now.
Public school trustees have approved a motion to lease the recently vacated Comox Elementary School to the society in first and second
reading; but they are holding off on giving third reading, to give the public a
chance to comment.
“We haven’t heard of any negative comment,” said Scott Gaglardi, who pastors Northgate, along with wife Naomi. “We expect this to go ahead.”
It looks like a win-win situation. The school district would come out ahead by
$100,000 a year, when the lease and saved maintenance costs are combined.
The school gets to move into Comox, giving it a chance to recover an enrollment
that recently fell from 110 to 87 through internal disagreements.
“We want to grow to 200 students in Comox Elementary,” said Gaglardi. “When we open our own school, we want to be at 400 for K to 12. But down the line
we want it to be double-track, with two classes at each grade, and add a 13th
grade for discipleship training. By then, we want to be at 700 students.”
The brand new school will have both an elementary and a high school gym, plus a
performing arts theatre which will double as a chapel. The new facility will
provide an academically accomplished school to rival the local public
institutions, Gaglardi promised. Next year, the school will offer grade 11 – and the year after, grade 12.
The Gaglardis are confident that the Comox/Courtenay area can support a
Christian school of that size, because of the percentage province-wide in private schools.
“Even with declining school enrollments, we think there’s enough,” said Gaglardi, who noted there are no other Christian schools in the Comox
Valley.
Half the funding, $3.5 million, will come from the Phil and Jenny Gaglardi
Foundation set up by Gaglardi’s great uncle and aunt. Phil Gaglardi was a high profile cabinet minister who
served for many years under Premier W.A.C. Bennett. The rest must be raised in
the community itself.
The pastor sees the appeal of the school to those who believe faith and
education should not be separated. For them, some of the values expressed in
the public system may be in conflict with those of their faith.
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He stressed that the school will teach the B.C. public curriculum; its teachers
are qualified to teach in any public school in the province. Nevertheless, he
said, faith and secular education don’t have to be at odds.
“We believe the two can only strengthen each other. Our goal is to open the
students to the world, so that they can understand the world – and they can change the world.”
Scott and Naomi Gaglardi have pastored for 12 years at Northgate, the last 10 as
senior pastors. The church itself is 71 years old and recently has taken
congregations in Gold River and Campbell River under its wings, showing them
videotapes of the Gaglardis’ sermons each Sunday. In all, there are 300 members.
Also on board at Northgate are Gaglardi’s father Ken and mother Eunice. Ken has taught and administered at Christian and
public colleges; most recently he taught physics and mathematics at the
University of Liberia; he has also served as pastor at Fort Langley Pentecostal
Church – and somehow found time to start and run a business supplying laser technology to
the forest industry.
Ken Gaglardi said the church is growing because “people are seeking God,” and because the church is providing a larger family for people to belong to – and at the same time, strengthening people in their own families.
It provides, for example, a program on parenting, and will soon offer a second
on marriage. There are also outreach programs such as meals for the disabled
and remedial reading for public school children. Gaglardi added that the new,
enlarged school will further strengthen families.
June 2009
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