Facility History:

Even before CRC, Inc. founded the CRC Charter school, it recognized that it would probably eventually have to build a facility.   A unique school would need a unique facility.  There was nothing in the county that would satisfy the needs of the full sized school as envisioned.   But first we needed a place to begin. . .

At the beginning charter school found itself in an almost desperate need for someplace to call home with reasonably sized classrooms and a safe location.  It had teachers and students, but in spite of an extensive search had no place to start the school, until just before school was to start it found St. Marks.  It seemed a match made in heaven.  The Church had the classroom space, a need for some repairs and a desire to galvanize their congregation in a worthy cause.  The CRC Charter School opened in the St Marks Episcopal Church facility for the 2001-2002 school year.

From the CRC CS point of view we could not have hoped for a better "landlord".  This historic church had the first church school in Putnam County and years of supporting education.  It could not have been more hospitable and cooperative.

Interestingly, as the school grew, so did the church.  This was probably more the result of a new dynamic minister, but the church members did seem to have enjoyed having lots of beautiful children around.

After two years, we desperately needed more space for expansion.  We were unable to obtain enough space in one place for the whole school, so we determined that we would have to function with two campuses.  The Church graciously let us continue to use their space even though their rapidly growing congregation was increasing their own space needs, and The Putnam County School District agreed to let us to use part of the old Browning Pierce school in East Palatka.  In cooperation with school district personnel we spent 5 months bringing things up to safety and adequate functioning levels.  Our two new first grade classes and our first kindergarten class were established there.  It was an adequate arrangement.

Meanwhile, the CRC, Inc. had continued its effort to get a purpose designed school facility built.  Progress had been made and construction would begin the next year.

In order to get the whole school back onto a single campus during the year of construction, CRC refurbished more of the old Browning Pierce School.  This did require the CRC to spend more operational money on school district facilities, but being all together on the same campus was worth the investment.

Because of construction delays, we ended up spending both the fourth and half of the fifth year on this campus. 

It took a bit longer than we hoped,  but finally on January 6, 2008 the school was able to occupy the new facility.