Mount Rainier Lutheran High School will celebrate the start of construction on its new school at 3 p.m. on Sunday, July 11, at the corner of 72nd Street and Waller Road in East Tacoma, the site of the new high school.
The 54,000-square foot school is designed to educate up to 250 students in grades nine through 12, providing a Christ-centered education that combines the best qualities of public schools, private secular schools, faith-based schools and home-schooling.
According to Executive Director Dr. Robert Malzahn, Ph.D., one of the main tenants of the high school is to give children the foundation they need to follow their dreams, regardless of the professions they choose later in life. The schools academic course work prepares students for a post-secondary education.
But, high school is more than preparing kids for college, its about grounding students in the values that create happy, healthy, productive, caring members of our communities, regardless of their future vocations, Malzahn said.
The school opened its doors to students in fall of 2003 in temporary classrooms at the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in East Tacoma. The new school is scheduled to open in fall 2005.
Leaders of 25 Puget Sound-area Lutheran congregations began discussing the idea for a new high school two decades ago.
Work began in earnest on the concept in 1995 when the Lutheran High School Association of Puget Sound was incorporated to conduct fundraising and awareness initiatives.
The school was designed by Architects BCRA, headquartered in Tacoma. The general contractor is Tacoma-based Pease & Sons, in cooperation with John Korsmo Construction of Lakewood.
