Delta Community church welcomes addition

Officials break ground for permanent classrooms

By Jeff Weisinger Staff Writer

Rev. Doug Schoonover didn’t know how long a road he had ahead of him when he arrived at his new Discovery Bay church in 2013.

The Delta Community Presbyterian Church’s school wasn’t as big as it is now and there weren’t many classrooms available for the kids. The original classrooms were built on the original 2.5 acres that the campus sits on, and there are these brown trailers that catered to the upperclassmen of the school — the third-through-fifth graders.

About a decade later, just in time for the church’s 35th anniversary, and with assistance from their congregation and many others, the old and dusty trailers are set to go as the church and the kids of its school, All God’s Children Christian School, put shovels to dirt in front of those same trailers on Thursday, April 13 as they’ll get replaced with new, permanent, classrooms.

“It’s really been a faith journey,” Schoonover said. “It’s been a faith journey in the aspect that every single time that the church has been able to expand, God’s pro- vided the financing or the people needed.”

The church raised some of the money for the new $2.9 million classrooms through the “Growing for God Building campaign.” They recently raised $19,000 of the funds in a golf tournament at the Discovery Bay Country Club, and they have a car show on April 29 at the Discovery Bay Marina as the fundraising efforts continue.

Larry Hengl is one of the senior church members directing the projects, and he is using his more than four decades of experience on larger projects to get the new classrooms put in place.

“It’s very special,” he said. “This is fun, being somewhat of a general contractor and overseeing all of it and getting some help with the other members of the congregation. Some of the parents of the children that go to school here are getting involved and they’ve been helping us get ready by emptying the trailer, so it’s been a good project for a lot of members of the church and the school.”

The new modular classrooms are set to open for the children of the elementary school toward the end of this year or early next year, and will cater to the school’s upperclassmen.

The new modular classrooms are set to open for the children of the elementary school toward the end of this year or early next year, and will cater to the school’s upperclassmen. The rooms will feature a lot more space per room compared to the trailers now and will allow for new technology to help the kids learn more and will fit up to 26 kids per room, officials said. The prekindergarten-through-fifth grade school has 160 kids enrolled at the moment. Heading into next school year, the school has 148 kids enrolled so far.

The project also includes a new multi- purpose room that will help with the school’s aftercare program and provide extra meeting space. The multipurpose room is estimated to add 5,000-6,000 square feet of extra space.

“(The project) is something that’s been a dream,” said Jennifer Leypon, the pre-school director of All God’s Children and the principal of its elementary school. “We’ve been wanting this for a super long time and kind of put it in God’s hands saying ‘when it happens, He’ll show us the way.’ We have a great community of parents that are rallying around it and the community has been super supportive with all of our fundraisers.”

Delta Community Presbyterian Church is the only brick-and-mortar church in Discovery Bay. Throughout the years, Schoonover and the rest of the staff at the church have looked for ways to continue to build and expand, and the new classrooms are just the next step in upcoming, planned updates to the church’s campus.

“The goal is that you always want your church to grow,” Schoonover said. “It’s taken a little while, and took us a little while to get the funding from the denomination. But it’s just been exciting as a pastor to be able to see how people come together, that this is a ministry of the church. The school is an outreach of the church.”

For more information on the church, go to https://dcpcfamily.org

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