PORT ARTHUR, Texas — One Port Arthur charter school is seeing so much growth, its students will be moving to a new facility for the 2020-2021 school year.
Bob Hope School will convert the old Central Baptist Church on Hwy. 73 into its high school.
Daniel Cruz, the campus director for Bob Hope High School, says his students will have a new home next school year. Right now, grades 6-12 share the campus on 9th Avenue.
"We've outgrown the current facility, we started with 250 students here and we've grown to over 790 students," Cruz said.
He said he and superintendent Dr. Bobby Lopez came up with the idea during lunch.
"It's funny, we were on a our way to lunch and I mentioned the church," Cruz said. "Dr. Lopez said that he had talked about it before and we drove by and it just went from there."
This will be the second campus expansion in two years for the charter school.
Bob Hope now has an elementary campus in Beaumont, which opened in 2018 along Park North Drive.
Dr. Lopez said it proves parents want options.
"It's just about giving the kids, the best option," Lopez said. "All kids want a great education, that's what they deserve and that's what we're here to offer."
The new high school in Port Arthur will have 40 classrooms, a new gym and a number of athletic facilities.
The existing campus will be the new middle school.
"The students are excited, the parents are excited. Whenever we first mentioned it the parents were like 'where are you going to put them, there's no space at the current location,'" Cruz said. "We told them we would take care of that."
Right now, the school serves 430 high school students. In the new location, 560 will attend.
More than 1,000 kids are still on a waiting list.
"I don't think that was the vision in the beginning with 250 students, but the demand is high," Cruz said.