April 5, 2016
By Paul Joseph, Paragon Communications News Director –
To help parents train their children to grow in knowledge, strength, spirit and in relation with God and others.
That’s the mission of Corn Bible Academy in Corn and soon to be in Clinton.
Ground breaking ceremonies for the new academy is this week and according to school superintendent, Curt Cloud, everyone is excited about getting started on the new facility and can’t hardly wait to start moving some dirt.
According to its website, Corn Bible Academy is a Christian junior high and high school located in Corn, a small town here in western Oklahoma. It attracts students from the local area and around the world.
The website also says the school is the fifth oldest Christian school in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Since 1902, Corn Bible Academy has provided a Christ-centered environment to help parents.
But, it’s no longer going to call Corn its home.
After a number of years of speculation, the Board of Directors of Corn Bible Academy made it official last August when they decided to relocate the 113-year-old school from Corn to Clinton.
Groundbreaking Thursday for a new 43,000-square-foot building and adjacent campus will be held at 10 am on a 40-acre site immediately north of the Western Oklahoma Christian School at the south edge of Clinton just outside the city limits.
Cloud says the new location is important for western Oklahoma in that it’ll allow Corn Bible to better carry out its overall mission.
Cloud says the academy was started by the Corn Mennonite Brethren Church in 1902 and the church continues to be active in its direction though the academy is now its own separate non-profit corporation.
Weatherford and Elk City both have Christian schools for children in the lower grades, and Cloud said the Clinton campus will still be as convenient to parents of Weatherford’s 40 students as Corn is now.
Corn Academy, serving students in grades 7 through 12, has an enrollment of approximately 100 students and school leaders are hoping to double that over the next 10 years. The new building is designed for 200.
Cloud says the new facility and the new location should set the school up for long-term growth.
The $10 million-dollars needed for construction is to be raised in three phases. Phase 1 calls for $7 million.
Phase 2’s goal is $1 million for a shop, fieldhouse and ball fields, and Phase 3 is $2.75 million for financial aid, scholarships and an endowment fund that should provide money in the future as the school receives interest off the endowment.
In an interview in August of 2015, Cloud said the school’s contractors and architects believe they can be in the new academy building by midterm of the 2016-17 school year.
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