As the Ad Astra Program continues to grow, we count many markers of blessing and success. The majority of our members return year after year and many families graduate their students from our program. New tutors request to be a part of our program and bring interesting new courses to the table. Now that we have the KIDS side offering Nursery through 8th grade, entire families are able to be accommodated in one program. The requests for new membership in the KIDS program alone has more than doubled from our pilot year and we a thrilled that 100% of the families from our first year have opted to return! All of these things tell us that what we are doing is good! What we bring to the community is valuable and what we offer families is worth their time and investment. These facts are so very encouraging!

With all of the good, though, we also find ourselves facing a difficult situation: we are running out of space.

We have sought remedy with our host, and they have approved three additional classrooms to be added to our lease for 2025-26. After that, they have no additional space available for us. They have presented terms for continuing our lease through the 2026-27 Academic Year, and we are welcome to continue our relationship, however, no further growth is possible. Our host is obligated to prioritize Sunday morning operations; Our operations on Tuesdays and Thursdays conflicts with the operation of other activities they host throughout the week; And unfortunately their facility is not set up to be able to host a school or a program such as Ad Astra other than what we have currently on lease.

That said, the options we have going forward are to 1) cap our growth and stay where we are, or 2) relocate at least a portion of our program to a facility that is set up to accommodate our presence and growth. We welcome any suggestions that you may have for your own church or other facilities in our area. Please share your ideas and we will certainly contact them as we prepare for what the next steps are for Ad Astra.

We meet Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8am-4pm From August through May, and ideally would occupy 18 spaces.