Cape School District buys former church building

Cape Girardeau School District has purchased the former Red Star Baptist Church building and grounds at 1301 N. Main St. in Cape Girardeau.

The building will be the new home of Cape Central Academy and, in addition, the district's Early Childhood Center will move into the current Central Academy space.

"This is exciting for us because it allows both programs to have more room," said Neil Glass, superintendent of Cape Girardeau School District. "We weren't actively searching for anything, but this came along and you have to seize an opportunity when it presents itself."

Glass said both schools will have twice as much space as they do now. The Central Academy is currently located in the district’s administrative office building on Clark Avenue. Moving to the former church building will give it an additional 18,000 square feet. The Early Childhood center, located in the Terry W. Kitchen Central Junior High building on Whitener Street, will gain more than 10,000 square feet when it takes over the present Central Academy space.

Zech Payne, director of Cape Central Academy, said it has approximately 160 students and has outgrown its current classrooms.

"We have a lot of students in a pretty small environment and so this will give us a lot more room and area to grow," Payne said. "It's exciting that we will have our own unique school building now."

Payne said there is a lot of work to be done but they hope to start holding classes in the new building by the beginning of the next school year.

School officials still need to meet with designers to plan out the best use of space in the Red Star building. Glass said this opportunity to buy an existing building is ideal. He said they were aware of the need for more space, but building new facilities was not feasible.

Refurbishing the church will happen in stages, Glass said, but the goal is to get classrooms and a cafeteria set up for the Academy by August and as for moving the Early Childhood Center, he said, "it's almost a turnkey operation for them."

Payne said it will be good to provide students with bigger classrooms, cafeteria and a gym.

"It will be fun to think outside the box and find ways to make a safe and creative space for our students," Payne said.

Based on the Southeast Missourian's archives, the Red Star Baptist congregation dates back to 1916. The present church building opened in 1955, followed by the 14,400-square-foot activity center in 1973.

The Red Star Baptist Church congregation merged with Rock 'N' Roll Church of Cape Girardeau to form The Church of the Rescued and Redeemed in 2017.

The Church of the Rescued and Redeemed sold the buildings and property in 2021 and built its new facility at 824 Lexington Ave.