CHRISTIAN SCHOOL GROWING

Enrolling new students during the summer meant crowded quarters for the Eagle Ridge Christian School, formerly the Christian Faith Academy.

The school had hoped to move into a new building by the first of the school year, but weather and construction delays prevented that. Instead, administrators decided to separate the elementary and secondary students into two buildings.

Junior-high and high-school students attend classes at 2109 Boulder Crest while elementary students attend classes at 207 Pindwood Lane. The two buildings are about a mile apart.

Eventually the two groups will be merged into one location when construction on a new church and school is complete. The Christian Faith Fellowship Church, which supports the school, is building near Interstate 55 and Route K.

"We just ran out of room," said Janice Margrabe, school principal.

Part of the school construction should be complete by the first of 1997, so students might be moved again. Both school locations being used now are just temporary, rental property. The new building will be at least seven times larger than the existing junior-high and high-school building.

"We're behind where we want to be, but we are where God wants us to be," Margrabe said.

Christian Faith Academy began in 1982 in Scott City and moved to Cape Girardeau two years ago. The charter class at the school graduated in May.

Class sizes are small, but enrollment has doubled since last fall. The largest class -- a combined group of first, second and third grades -- has 23 students. The school requires that each student be a Christian, have a pastor's recommendation and meet high, academic standards.

"If you took the spiritual part out, we would no longer be a Christian school," Margrabe said.

Although it remains a Christian school, it wanted autonomy from the church. In June its name changed from Christian Faith Academy to Eagle Ridge Christian School. "We are always under the wing of the church," Margrabe said.