As God continues to lead the way and provide for our relocation, we wanted to chronicle the story of all that He is doing. Check back here regularly to see the latest updates on the Relocation Project.
Week 20 (Nov. 29-Dec. 5)
We’re seeing a lot of blue! Painter’s tape for details, front doors, and classroom accent walls seem like a lot of blue, but it’s all to complement the great paint jobs on the outside and inside throughout the building. Each classroom is nearing completion of painting details and there’s only a few big projects left. We have a couple small decks to finish on the back side and two large decks to build on the front and side of the building. Inside we still need to finish piecing the ceiling back together and installing flooring, but we’re getting close! If only we had electricity.
Week 19 (Nov. 22-28)
With it being Thanksgiving week and a break from regular school activity it allowed us to get quite a bit done. Most of the painting inside was able to get knocked out and putting the trim on the building were some big strides forward. At some point or another all of our teachers made it out to help out a little, and even a student from Dallas Lutheran School made it back out with his mom and sister.
Week 18 (Nov. 15-21)
God is good in how He brings His people together and back together. We got a chance to reconnect with a friend from Lord of Life Lutheran in Plano, Scott Peters. He leads the youth at his congregation, but has been a professional painter for years. With the right tools and expertise, Scott was able to knock out the painting of the outside of the building in a day!
Week 17 (Nov. 8-14)
Getting walls prepped for painting enabled us to be ready for the great blessing of Dallas Lutheran School coming and helping was all worth it. Over 40 students (Middle School-High School) came up and pitched in to help with painting and building decks for exiting the classrooms. It might have only been for a few hours, but they worked diligently and productively to help us knock a lot out in one day.
Week 16 (Nov. 1-7)
It took a few long nights and some help again from Ms. Lane and some of her friends, but it paid off. Take a look at happens in Week 17!
Week 15 (Oct. 25-31)
Now that the building was moving along with the siding, we could take some time to bring our students out and make their mark. We invited the students to select a favorite Bible verse or write an encouraging word on the floor or a wall stud. We know that these will get covered up, but we wanted to have God’s Word as a part of our foundation and all that we’re about.
Great thanks to our new PE teacher Ms. Lane and her friend Cody who have been a big part of helping us get things ready.
Week 14 (Oct. 18-24)
Getting the building wrapped up as quickly as possible was a high priority, but that’s only the first step. Cutting out the windows and doors that we covered came next, and then finally we could start to get some of the new siding up on the building.
Week 13 (Oct. 11-17)
Having teenage boys around to help out is a great asset! Great thanks to Noah Hotopp and his friend Will Ortega. Over the remainder of the week, we removed the rest of the old siding, but we couldn’t leave the building exposed. We needed to get it wrapped as soon as possible to keep the weather out. Another huge blessing was having Jose Armendariz from United Rental come and help us out. He was the sales manager who helped us through the process of purchasing the building, and now he’s volunteering his time and expertise to help us.
Week 12 (Oct. 4-10)
We too, as so many other people, have been effected by the supply chain and shipping issues that have been a sign of this time. We planned to have vinyl siding that could easily go right over our existing skin of the building, but the supplier told us it would be Thanksgiving before we might see it. So, having the growth mindset that we encourage in our students, we shifted to a completely different idea, though it meant more work.
Praise God for friends and people who could pitch in and help! We had over 20 people jump in and take the old siding off the building and accomplished almost removing it all in one weekend.
Week 11 (Sept. 27-Oct. 3)
As most of the demo is finished, we got to work on framing up and rebuilding new walls. No more pony walls for the bathrooms. The rooms are bigger and things are closer to how we envision them.Up next week…electrical and maybe HVAC!
Week 10 (Sept. 20-26)
Now that we have full access to the building, we’re getting things moving along at a pretty good pace. Students, teachers, friends, and parents all coming together to tear down, build up, get dirty and clean up!
We’ve moved all of the walls into their new places and made the rooms much bigger. A huge shout out to our plumbers, Blue Star Plumbing (who office just across the street from us). They’ve been working hard at giving us essentially a completely new plumbing system. Of all the features, having more bathrooms is at the top of our students’ favorite things they’re looking forward to.
Week 9 (Sept. 13-19)
With the buildings on site, the work of putting them all together was fun to watch. Pac-Van’s crew did a great job at positioning, leveling and merging these sections into one solid building.
We couldn’t wait much longer. We had to get in there too and do some demo as the other crew was wrapping up.
The rooms were a little smaller than we anticipated, but we solved that by moving some walls! Now we’ll have six good sized rooms, each with their own bathroom, and plenty of space to learn.
Special thanks to the Fosters and the Flores families. They helped us get things kicked off. So great to have some of our students helping out as well!
Also, a huge shout out to Robbins Engineering where Philip Robbins donated his time and services to us for the engineering of our new septic system. They installed it and have it all ready for the next step…plumbing!
Week 8 (Sept. 6-12)
The buildings have arrived!!!
We found this previously owned building several months ago, and Pac-Van/United Rentals has been a great company to work with in order to make it happen. What we thought might take several days took only one to get all 12 pieces of our new school building delivered to the new site.
Thanks also to East Fork SUD for tapping our water and getting the water meter set. Getting closer with every step!
Week 7 (Aug. 30-Sept. 5)
After a little more than a month of waiting, we finally have the permits! Now things are happening and happening fast.
What a blessing to have a brother-in-law who owns an excavation company and took time to come and help us out in preparing the pad and roads! It was definitely God’s timing and work to watch Doyle Moore and his friend Anthony do a masterful job at getting the pad site leveled and solid.
Week 5 (Aug. 16-22) and Week 6 (Aug. 23-29)
Unfortunately there was nothing exciting happening this week. Just some maintenance on what we have already done on the property and a lot of waiting for permits. In the middle of waiting, it can seem like an eternity, but we know that things work best when it’s in God’s way and timing so we find consolation that He has something good for us when the permits come to fruition.
Week 4 (Aug. 9-15)
While we were waiting permits, Mrs. Hotopp made a great find on some lockers and started to paint them. Going to be a nice shade of blue to go with our gray flooring. 9000 sq ft of flooring is quite a bit to move and store, but we had some awesome high schoolers give up an evening to come help us. Appreciate the Wylie High Theater students!
Week 3 (Aug. 2-8)
Waiting for permits is no fun, but at least there are small projects to accomplish around the property. Mrs. Hotopp took on the fun project of getting Hammock Hill up and swaying. Shout out to Greg Workman, Joel Peters, Derrice Randle and Pastor Hotopp for their time and efforts in cutting back trees and getting things ready.
Week 2 (July 26-Aug. 1)
Mrs. Hotopp wastes no time! She got right to work on making an awesome sign (thanks also to Linda Ashburn). By the end of the week it was in the ground and drawing people’s attention to our new location. Several people have stopped by just because of the sign and wondering about more information on Veritas Academy!
Special shout out again to Jesse Babiuch, Greg Workman, Derrice Randle, Steve Mullins and more for helping in trimming trees and more projects throughout the week.
Week 1 (July 19-25)
July 19th was a blur, but an amazing day. Our board president, Greg Workman and secretary, Matt Giordano met early that morning to sign everything for the closing. Permits were submitted to Collin County by the afternoon, and then by 6:30pm that evening a group of supporters and families gathered together at the new property for a groundbreaking ceremony. Such a joy to see God’s people gathered to celebrate all that He has worked to this point!
We got to work right away the next day. By Wednesday we had assembled a shed quickly designed by Pastor Hotopp and got it ready for all of our yard tools. Shout out to Greg Workman, Bentley Craft, Linda and Jeff Ashburn, the Ortega kids, Hotopp kids, Jesse Babiuch and many others who helped out this week to kick off the projects.