Heritage Christian Academy will not be moving to the Riverchase Middle School campus and will instead be remaining at their current "home" for the upcoming school year.
On July 12, it was announced that Hoover City Schools will be purchasing the Riverchase Middle School campus from the Pelham school board after Heritage Christian Academy, formerly Shades Mountain Christian School, had been in negotiations with the Pelham school board for over a year to purchase the property.
A release said that until the end of June when closing did not occur on schedule, HCA had been confident that the purchase would be made.
"HCA saw the delay in acquiring the property as a temporary hurdle but not a permanent road block," the release said. Belongings had been packed and ready for the move, and both a campus clean up day and family preparation day were planned to ready the campus for the transition.
When HCA did not complete the purchase transaction for the campus by the closing date, however, Hoover City Schools was given an opportunity to purchase the Riverchase campus. The Hoover City School board voted in favor of purchasing the property on July 11.
The Elder Council of the Shades Mountain Community Church, formerly the Shades Mountain Independent Church, held a meeting the following evening and agreed that HCA would remain at its current location for the 2017-2018 school year. HCA staff also met on July 12 to determine how best to inform faculty and parents of the abrupt change of plans.
"The leadership of Heritage Christian Academy would like for the community to know, 'We are disappointed but not disheartened. Heritage Christian Academy has the same great faculty, same great students and same great families as we had in the past. We look forward to what God has in store for HCA for this year and for the future,'" the press release said.
A discussion has been planned for HCA faculty and parents to discuss the process of moving back in to Shades Mountain Community Church for the 2017-2018 school year.