STEVENS POINT – High school students and their families in Central Wisconsin will have a new option for in-person instruction this fall.
The City Plan Commission gave unanimous approval May 4 to Central Wisconsin Lutheran High School to operate a parochial high school at 5225 Heffron Court in Stevens Point.
The property is in the far southeast corner of the city’s industrial park and was previously occupied by Arrow Academy, a school for children with learning and developmental disabilities.
What Central Wisconsin Lutheran High School will offer
The school will offer a “traditional” education rather than a “classical” education, Paul Gnan, principal, said during the May 4 meeting.
Students graduating from Stevens Point-area Lutheran elementary schools and students in congregations of area Lutheran and non-denominational churches are expected to attend the school beginning with the 2026-27 school year.
When the school plans to open and how it will expand
Instruction will be offered to about 10 to 15 students in grades 9 and 10 in the school’s first year of operation before expanding with grades 11 and 12 in each of the two subsequent years to achieve full operation in 2028, Gnan said.
How the new school could affect other Stevens Point-area high schools
The school will offer “competition” to other area high schools, including Stevens Point Area Public School District’s Stevens Point Area Senior High, or SPASH, and Pacelli Catholic Schools’ Pacelli Catholic High School, Gnan said.
“More competition rises everybody,” Gnan said. “That’s what we hope to do.”
Tuition, vouchers and church partnership discounts
Students may be eligible to receive full tuition scholarships, or vouchers, to attend the school through the school’s participation in the Wisconsin Parental Choice Program, according to the school’s website.
The program provides a state aid payment to the school for each eligible student in attendance, according to the Department of Public Instruction.
Students in congregations of churches included in the high school’s “congregational partnership program” will also be eligible for a tuition discount, according to the school’s website.
Church congregations participating in the program include St. Paul Lutheran Church and School in Stevens Point, Immanuel Lutheran Church and School in Wisconsin Rapids, and Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church in Plover.
More information can be found on the Central Wisconsin Lutheran High School website at https://cwlhs.com/.
Erik Pfantz covers local government and education in central Wisconsin for USA TODAY NETWORK – Wisconsin and values his background as a rural Wisconsinite. Contact him at epfantz@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Stevens Point Journal: Stevens Point approves site for Central Wisconsin Lutheran High School
Reporting by Erik Pfantz, Stevens Point Journal / Stevens Point Journal
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