Bradford Academy is looking a little closer to its current home near downtown Mebane for a future expansion that’s potentially contingent upon First Baptist Church of Mebane’s plans to build a new church and daycare facility along Gibson Road.
Bradford Academy is a private K-12 classical Christian school founded in 2008 and currently based at Grace Reformed Baptist Church at 939 South Third Street in Mebane. The private school had purchased 14.74 acres along N.C. Highway 119 several years ago to build a future school adjacent to the Summerhaven subdivision.
Bradford Academy founder and headmaster Jeff Johnston said in a recent interview with The Alamance News that the initial plans to build a private school on the 14.74-acre site along N.C. Highway 119 haven’t come together.
“The property on 119 we purchased with the plans to build on that,” Johnston said. “We haven’t been able to put the money together to build there yet; if we had the donors to be able to go ahead and build there, we would, but right now we’re looking at different options.”
Bradford Academy’s board purchased the 14.74-acre site from Desco Summerhaven for $830,000 in November 2021, based on documents that were filed at the time with Alamance County’s Register of Deeds.
Now, a different developer out of Greensboro has asked Mebane’s planning board to approve conditional rezoning to allow for construction of 140 apartments on the 14.74-acre site along N.C. Highway 119 that is still owned by Bradford Academy’s board, the Christian Education Society of Mebane, according to the county’s Register of Deeds.
Mebane’s planning board had been scheduled at its May 13 meeting to discuss conditional rezoning for the proposed Stadler Place Apartments but instead postponed consideration of the request until a future meeting.
After buying the vacant land along N.C. Highway 119, Bradford Academy later entered into a right of first refusal agreement with First Baptist Church of Mebane – which gives the private school first dibs on buying the church’s property along South Third Street if it is sold.
The agreement between the church and private school covers two parcels: the 25,740-square foot church building at 301 South Third Street and the adjacent church parking lot at an unaddressed site along East Lee Street, based on documents that were filed with Alamance County’s Register of Deeds in August 2022.
“It’s one of those things we’re discussing; we don’t have a contract with them,” Johnston said of the First Baptist Church property. “We bought a couple small lots beside First Baptist that we’re using. When we bought those we asked if we could get first right of refusal in the possibility that building becomes available.”
“We’ve been on a slow positive trajectory [in enrollment growth],” Johnston told the newspaper. Bradford Academy current has a total of approximately 270 students and plans to max out at a future enrollment of about 420 students, he explained.
Bradford Academy originally opened for students in kindergarten and first grade in 2008 and continued adding additional grades with each subsequent year of operation, Johnston said. “Our first class graduated in 2020, and that class has just now finished college.”
Part of the rationale for Bradford Academy’s slow growth strategy has been to maintain small class sizes – they currently average between 12 and 16 students each – which research has shown to have a positive impact on academic performance, Johnston acknowledged in the interview.
First Baptist Church expansion plans
Meanwhile, First Baptist Church of Mebane plans to build an expanded church and a 21,955-square foot daycare center on 22.57 acres at 940 Gibson Road, which is located within the city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction and would require annexation to connect to city utilities.
Mebane’s city council approved rezoning for the property last month.
Stan Wheatley, who presented preliminary plans for the First Baptist Church expansion, told the council in April that the church’s current building will be sold once construction is complete.
First Baptist Church purchased the property along Gibson Road in October 2015 for $682,500, according to Alamance County’s Register of Deeds.
Architectural renderings show that the future church, daycare facility, and an educational or a Sunday School building would be built within the next three to five years; and a sanctuary with seating for 500 to 800 people would be built as the third and final phase.
The church hopes to break ground on the daycare facility later this year, according to Wheatley.
Read story about First Baptist’s plans for new site, beginning with day care: https://alamancenews.com/mebane-city-council-approves-rezoning-for-first-baptist-church-expansion/
Read also about plans for apartments on the school’s former site: https://alamancenews.com/large-apt-complex-proposed-in-lieu-of-christian-school-site-on-nc-119-in-mebane/
