St. Alban’s Church gets approval to expand private school up to 12th grade

St. Alban’s Church received approval Tuesday from the Seminole County Commission to expand its private school up to 12th grade.

The modest church, east of the intersection of Aloma Avenue and State Road 417, has been operating since 1983. The Ecclesial School at St. Alban’s, adjacent to the church, was founded in 2018. 

“The school is slowly expanding,” said Rev. Peter Josyln, the pastor at St. Alban’s Anglican Church. “We’re at 135 students, and the goal is to have a capacity of 230 to 250. That’s as big as it could ever get, given the size of our campus.”

The Seminole County Commission unanimously approved the expansion Tuesday. The school will still have to come back with formal site plans, but the plan is to add three more portable classrooms to the campus, which already has six portable classrooms. The expansion would occupy space closerst to Aloma Avenue than the current school buildings. 

The approvals come with a cap of 250 students. 

Commissioner Bob Dallari wanted commissioners to remove the cap, saying the building size would dictate how many students could fit. 

“There are some schools (where) we don’t have it; there are some schools we do,” Dallari said. “I’d rather not have the limitations on ‘X’ amount of students. They have to be able to fit the students into the building.” 

Ultimately, commissioners voted to keep the cap. 

“We always worry about the traffic queuing,” said Seminole County Principal Planner Annie Sillaway.

Sillaway added that the project can’t expand without more approvals. 

“Any expansion of buildings will require the future approval by the Board of County Commissioners and a site plan must be approved prior to permitting,” Sillaway said.

Kevin Clark is the founder and president of the locally based Ecclesial Schools Initiative. He said the school’s overall mission is to provide an affordable, private Christian education. The annual tuition is $12,500, but after state-funded vouchers, the cost comes down. 

“The more important number for us: out-of-pocket costs on average are below $2,000, so maybe like $1,700 or $1,800 a year,” Clark said. 

He said the plan is to hopefully be open for additional students by fall of 2027. The school will have staggered start times to ease traffic impacts, and officials said the school tends to have large families with multiple siblings coming to the school – thus having a smaller impact to traffic. 

The Ecclesial School Initiative also has a campus in Longwood. The initiative has plans not just to expand St. Alban’s, but to add more campuses. 

“We hope to have an announcement here in about two or three weeks about a third location,” Clark said. “We’re opening in Orange County.”

Abe Aboraya is a Report for America corps member.