A Deeply Rooted Vision
For 110 years, Denver Christian School has partnered with mission-aligned families to provide an accessible, world-class, whole-child, Christian education in the Denver Metro area. We offer a 14-year partnership in a Biblically rich environment where professional Christian educators integrate academics with faith formation to equip students to engage the rapidly changing world with Christ's transforming love. Over ten years ago, when Denver Christian School came together on one campus, it felt like a big dream to ever fill the whole building. Back then, we had just over 400 students, so there was lots of extra room. It was hard to imagine that one day we might run out of space for all that God had planned for our school!
A COMMITMENT TO GROWTH
Today, that dream has come true—and even more! We now serve almost 1,000 students who come from more than 100 churches all across the Denver area. More and more Christian families want a school that walks beside them from Pre-K all the way to graduation, helping their children grow in faith and knowledge together. At the end of 2024, God opened another amazing door for us. He made it possible for Denver Christian to purchase a building next to our campus so that we can continue welcoming the right families into our school community. Because of a generous $2 million gift, and the chance to lease the new building while we pray and plan, we have had time to seek God’s guidance and wisely steward for the gift He has given us.
A TEAM OF COMMITTED PROFESSIONALS
In the spring and summer of 2025, Denver Christian School decided that the new building would become our future high school. To help make this project the best it can be, we brought in trusted experts. NV5 is helping oversee the project, HCM is designing the building, and JHL is leading the construction work. During this same time, we also welcomed two new leaders to our school family for the 2025–2026 school year. The Board of Trustees chose Michael Ehrenfried to be our next Head of School, and a search team, led by Interim Head of School, Glen Vos, hired Brock Becker to serve as our new High School Principal.
A Season of Discernment
This past fall, Denver Christian leadership entered a time of discernment around the question “What is the right size for Denver Christian?” so we could make wise plans for the new building. Out of this process, we chose to grow, offering a fourth class in elementary, starting with Kindergarten, and set goals for growth in our middle and high schools. We want grades that are big enough to give students world-class offerings, but still small enough for every student to be seen, known, and loved as a whole child. We believe God is leading us, over the next ten years, toward a school of about 1,400 students. In this plan, most classrooms would have about 20–25 students, with around 80–90 in each elementary grade, 90–100 in each middle school grade, and 100–125 in each high school grade. As we grow, Denver Christian remains committed to serving children of Christian parents and partnering with right-fit families. We trust that as we walk forward, the Lord will continue to guide our steps in this journey.
FINANCIAL FEASIBILITY
At the same time, Denver Christian studied whether we could afford to grow our campus and renovate the new building wisely. Accessibility is part of our vision, even as the cost of living continues to rise in the Denver Metro area. Because of this, we knew from the start that using tuition dollars would not be the right way to fund this project. Instead, we saw that this work would need to be supported by the generosity of our community—parents, alumni, and churches—through special gifts. In late fall of 2025, we partnered with Generis, an expert in school advancement, to complete a feasibility study that helped us determine whether our community could fund the project and how interested we are in supporting it.
AN EMERGING PATH FORWARD
In God’s providence, our plans for school size, program growth, and finances are coming together in a 35,000-square-foot renovation of our new building. This project will give our high school 17 modern classrooms and labs, and will allow us to double from about 250 high school students to around 500. The space this frees up in our main building will allow us to grow our elementary school, expand our middle school, and strengthen our hub for visual and performing arts, anchored by our beautiful new Performing Arts Center. This plan also leaves room for future projects to add more academic or co-curricular spaces in the new building as needs arise. Most of all, it helps us live out our vision: to offer an accessible, whole-child, world-class Christian education as we love God and love others together as one Denver Christian community.
OUR PRESENT MOMENT
Right now, we are at an important and hopeful moment in this journey. The Board will meet with our consulting partners, Generis, in the coming weeks to decide on the next steps for funding this project. This will include creating a campaign plan, setting a target for the amount of money to be committed before construction begins, and putting clear measures in place to steward this project wisely. At the same time, our construction team is finalizing the building designs and beginning work with the City of Lakewood on the permitting process, so that as gifts are received, we are ready to move forward. Our prayer, based on the current timeline, is that students will be able to learn in the new building sometime in the fall of 2027—and, by God’s grace, perhaps even at the very start of the 2027–2028 school year.
In the months ahead, there will be many ways for our whole community to join in and help make this new building a reality. But, if you sense God's leading to consider a significant, transformational gift now to help get this project off the ground, we invite you to reach out to Jill Kalkman, our Director of Advancement, or myself. Right now, would you take a moment to pray for Denver Christian as we follow the Lord in this process? He has been faithful to our school for more than 100 years, and we trust He will continue to be as we step forward in faith. Please pray that God would guide our leaders, our Board, and our whole community as we work to bring this project to life. Pray that we would pursue this project with humility to serve the next generation of students. And pray as we seek God, that he would establish the work of our hands.
With Gratitude, Michael Ehrenfried Head of School, Denver Christian