OSHKOSH (NBC 26) — Valley Christian School's enrollment has risen over the past decade, so the private school is building a new high school to account for the growth.
- Valley Christian is a private Christian school with campuses in Neenah and Oshkosh.
- VCS has seen enrollment grow from about 275 students to 775 students over 11 years.
- The new high school will be built on the field near Vinland Street and Fernau Avenue. The first phase will cost $14.5 million, paid for through community fundraising.
When the bell rings at VCS, the hallways quickly fill up.
"We all run into each other in the hallway," Merian Getz, a junior at VCS, says. "It's like one hallway here and one hallway over there, so everyone is pretty crammed."
Getz has been at VCS her entire school career. She says her kindergarten class had fewer than 20 students, but VCS leadership says today's kindergarten class has 70 kids.
"Our family is growing for sure, so we are kind of bursting at the seams," Tim Divens, VCS chief financial officer, says.
With limited space, teachers are forced to overlap classrooms, and families have limited parking space.
"We have really grown over the last few years," Martha Wahl, chemistry and anatomy teacher, says. "There aren't enough classrooms for all the classes we need, so some teachers have to share."
To accommodate growing enrollment, VCS is building a new high school off of Vinland Street and Furnau Avenue. The building will be about 40,000 sq ft and house 300 students. Phase one of the project will cost $14.5 million, according to Divens.
"We have no debt, no debt at all, it's all fundraising driven," he says. "From families, donors– this has been a multi-year project."
The new school will include a commons and chapel area, expanded STEAM program space, an athletic weight room, and dedicated science labs.
"This is a necessity for growth," Divens says. "We saw that we had a wave coming. Our classes in middle school and elementary are right around 70 a piece, so we knew we had that wave of students coming, so we needed to prepare for a bigger space for once they get here."
The middle school students, currently housed on the Neenah campus, will now move to the current VCS Oshkosh building, though Divens says the details are still being ironed out.
"Having another building is going to be even better and allow us to give a lot more opportunities to our students," Sean Freund, VCS principal, says.
VCS isn't alone in its recent enrollment growth; the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction shows private school enrollment has increased by 7,493 students between the 2020-21 and 2024-25 school years.
School Choice Wisconsin says over 60,000 students are enrolled in a state school choice voucher program– a new record.
Public schools, on the other hand, have seen declining enrollment over the past few years. Wisconsin DPI shows public school enrollment has decreased by 24,053 students between the 2020-21 and 2024-25 school years.
"I can speak to us specifically, I think the families that we're seeing come to us are coming to us because of who we are," Freund says.
Divens says a faith-centered mission and family environment help attract new families.
“There's nothing wrong with public school and nothing wrong with homeschooling, but private school gives that family atmosphere," he says. "They learn about God... from day one, that's blended in everything.... They really find their identity, they form strong convictions of who they are, and I think parents are really attracted to that."
Another part of the expansion is a renovation of the old Trinity Lutheran School in Oshkosh, which recently closed its doors after 169 years. VCS will run a pre-k through 2nd-grade program off-site.
The new high school is expected to open in Fall 2027, and Divens says they hope to begin construction this spring.
