Last year, Lancaster Mennonite School (LMS) embarked on a mission to bring the students from its multiple locations closer together. LMS sold its New Danville campus to Catherine Hershey Schools for Early Learning, and the LMS campus in Locust Grove was purchased by Clark Associates. The main LMS campus on Lincoln Highway welcomed the students from the other locations and now contains students from kindergarten to 12th grade.

"We wanted all grades in one physical location in order to offer more opportunities," said Aubrey Kreider, director of communications at LMS. "We were also very specific with the partners that we wanted to purchase the schools."

The unification of LMS' campuses has provided the school with an opportunity to update and expand its facilities, many of which were vital to housing the new students. The additional changes to the campus were designed to allow the school's curricula to focus on areas such as faith formation, the fine arts, science and technology, outdoor learning and world languages.

The building that was previously used as a library for the high school has been converted into science classrooms, furnished with labs, tables and other equipment for biology and chemistry courses. LMS converted an office into what it calls a MakerSpace, which serves as a facility for students to develop their creative skills by making art, building crafts and completing projects. In addition to the academic upgrades, LMS installed a new playground for its younger students.

The transition has yielded many positive outcomes for the school, many of which were pleasant surprises for the administration. Unifying the students under one roof has allowed teachers who were limited to specific roles at a previous location to embrace other teaching duties. One such teacher is Galen Sauder, who was formerly a middle school teacher at LMS' Locust Grove location and now serves as LMS' experiential learning teacher. On one day each week during recess, Sauder takes a group of kids out to explore the 95-acre campus's outdoor areas. The students are able to learn about nature and insects during the outing, and Sauder often brings animals such as chickens and rabbits to the school for the children to interact with as part of the animal husbandry classes.

"We've had some unique opportunities to have outdoor education and hands-on learning experiences," said Kreider. "People can shift roles because we have the space and location to do that."

Now that the campus holds children from kindergarten to high school, the transition has created opportunities for peer mentoring among the students. The high-schoolers serve as aids in the younger grades' study halls and often visit the kindergarten classrooms to read for the kids. "The little kids look up to the bigger kids, and the bigger kids love supporting the younger classes," Kreider said.

The largest changes to the school have been completed, although LMS is still raising funds for several practical and cosmetic renovations, which it expects to be completed after school lets out this year for summer vacation.