By fall of 1973 a small block building on Taft & Boulevard St. in Marion was purchased. To prepare the building as a school, church members, parents and SIU students, young and old, all spent many hours converting it for school use. This served as the school until June 1977.
In 1977, land east of Marion was purchased and two classrooms plus a library were built. Later 2 additional classrooms, offices and a gym were added. Pastor John Martin was the general architect, contractor, carpenter and pastor who led the volunteer group of, again, church members, parents and SIU students in the work that needed to be done.
Two students did 9th grade the year of 1980-1981. They sat at desks in the hallway for lack of space, and did correspondence with supervision from the upper grade teacher. In the early 1980’s we had nearly 100 students and four teachers.