Des Moines Christian School was able to acquire land on which to develop a new high school campus because of the generosity of an anonymous benefactor, the top official of the private school said.

The purchase “was made possible by an anonymous investor that is passionate about us being able to secure our future,” said Cade Lambert, Des Moines Christian’s head of school. The donor “matched that passion with a pretty transformational gift.”

In early May, Des Moines Christian School Association paid Dale and Mary Beth Day $6.8 million for just over 100 acres of mostly farmland at 13577 N.W. 42nd Ave. in Urbandale, Polk County real estate records show. The property, which includes a single-family house and farm-related buildings, is about 1 mile north of the private school’s current campus at 13007 Douglas Parkway.

Enrollment in prekindergarten through 12th grade has steadily grown in recent years. This school year, kindergarten through 12th-grade enrollment reached 1,165 students, the most in the institution’s 75-year history. An additional 150 youngsters are in the school’s preschool and child care program, and the school has a waiting list of about 1,000 students, Lambert said.

Plans are currently underway to add an additional section each of kindergarten and first grade next fall, a move that will require reconfiguring space at the school, he said. Prekindergarten through 12th-grade enrollment in the fall is expected to reach 1,430 students, Lambert said.

School officials have been looking at expansion plans for about seven years, Lambert said. Converting vacant commercial space was considered, as was building a new facility on undeveloped land, he said.

“The Day family approached us and said they heard we were looking at land. They said they weren’t really interested in selling, but that if they did, it would only be to us,” Lambert said. “That’s what really kick-started everything.”

Master site planning is underway for Des Moines Christian’s current campus and a future high school campus. The master planning process is expected to be completed by late summer, Lambert said.

Des Moines Christian School began in 1948 with 14 students, according to its website. In 1980, it moved into the former Franklin Junior High School in Des Moines, sharing facilities with First Federated Church. In 2005, the school relocated to its current 26-acre campus in Urbandale.
“Our thought at the time was, ‘How can we possibly ever fill this space?’” Lambert said.

Much of Des Moines Christian’s growth is in kindergarten, sixth and ninth grades – grades that are entry points into the school. “That’s where we are experiencing most of our growth, but really, it’s everything in between, too,” Lambert said.

Prior to the pandemic, Des Moines Christian began a concerted effort to keep parents informed of what was happening in their child’s classroom as well as about schoolwide activities. That effort helped boost enrollment, Lambert said.

After COVID-19, “people had a different insight into the education their kids were getting and many began to say that maybe it was time to reevaluate their choices,” Lambert said. “We saw a big enrollment wave after COVID.”

Another boost in interest in the school came after the passage of Iowa legislation that allows parents more opportunity to send their children to schools of their choice by removing financial barriers. The legislation was signed into law in early 2023.

“We saw an increase in demand, but it didn’t necessarily translate into more students because we had started to reach our capacity,” Lambert said.

A new high school campus would include athletic facilities and expanded facilities for fine and visual arts. More space would be available for academic classrooms and for programs that currently aren’t offered at Des Moines Christian. Lambert said he couldn’t name specifics because input is being gathered from parents and others.

Ideally, a new high school campus would be ready to occupy in about five years. “Whether we are able to do that highly depends on our ability to raise significant capital for the project,” Lambert said. “Before we can put out any timelines, we have to have some type of assurance that we can raise the money needed to build it.”

Moving high school students to a different campus would allow more space on the current campus for prekindergarten through eighth grades. In addition, middle school students would have sole use of the athletic fields on the Douglas Parkway campus instead of sharing them with the high school.

Des Moines Christian is working with SVPA Architects Inc. and Confluence | Landscape Architecture, Planning + Urban Design on developing a master plan for a new high school campus and the new campus.