It’s been another busy year for Marshalltown Christian School (MCS) Administrator Bethany Wirin and her team as the K-8 institution located at 1408 S. 7th Ave. continues to grow — so much so that they are currently leasing classroom space from neighboring Journey Church.

As the school year nears its conclusion, those successes will be celebrated during the second annual Royals Gala on Saturday, April 12 at the Elmwood Country Club. The event will feature live music from Rich Casciato, food and fellowship with a semi-formal dress code. Wirin said the banquet is part of a broader shift away from utilizing a higher number of small sales-based fundraisers and toward a single larger event.

“We’ve just learned a lot through reading, through visiting with other schools, through working with Christian School Management, which has done our strategic plan twice now,” Wirin said. “It’s very hard to recruit volunteers to do all of these events. You end up with the same people. It really burns people out, and so an annual fund is really designed to be the major way that people can connect with the school and participate in what we’re doing. So that’s what we’re trying to accomplish.”

While they still intend to raise money for various ongoing projects at the school, Wirin said the overall focus this year will be less on fundraising and more on celebration — an opportunity to share what has been accomplished during the 2024-2025 school year and what is still to come. The eighth grade graduating class of 18 students will be the largest in MCS history. The school’s leadership also completed the renewal of their accreditation by Christian Schools International and a 4-year strategic plan.

Looking forward, some of the biggest goals right now, according to Wirin, are refreshing the library with new classroom sets of books and more current literature and nonfiction, which will include asking the outgoing eighth graders for their selections, along with new furniture. Phase one of expansion is the other focus with the goal of building a recreational field northeast of the school building. Currently, kids play soccer and football on the playground, but this expansion would create more space.

Long term, the plan is to add four more classrooms on the north side of the building to ensure that MCS no longer has to rent space from Journey. While Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) are designed to cover the operating expenses of the school, Wirin said that facilities improvements will have to be paid for through private contributions and the annual fundraising drive.

A new feature of this year’s gala will be handing out a pair of awards to outstanding teachers, which Wirin is excited to present. Another highlight of the current school year was the hiring of Jeff Groth as the director of academics — a move that came as a result of the school more than doubling its enrollment to its current number, 125 students, over a two-year period.

“It’s been a good, growing year. We’ve seen a lot of growth in the kids,” Wirin said.

Administrative Assistant Anna Kodis said the gala will have something for everyone.

“It’s really an event for current families, for past families, for donors and just community members who have supported the school. So it definitely includes all of that. It’s not just an in-house thing,” Kodis said.

To learn more, visit https://givebutter.com/MCSgala2025 or https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063689467465.