Indiana News

Culture Camp
June 22-26
Rising 1st – Rising 5th
Any School, Christian Academy School System or Other

This one-of-a-kind camp will take your child on an exciting journey to explore five fascinating countries: Morocco, China, Ireland, Brazil and Fiji. Campers will experience culture through hands-on activities, art projects, music, stories, food and traditional games. The experience is more than just play; it’s an opportunity to grow spiritually, socially and intellectually.

Art Camp
July 6-9
Rising 3rd – Rising 5th
Any School, Christian Academy School System or Other

Creating Beauty from Recylables – Shoe Faces and Scrap Wooden Fish

Woodland Workshop
June 8-11
Rising K – Rising 3rd
Christian Academy of Indiana Only

At Woodland Workshop, creativity grows wild! We will venture into the woods to explore, collect and create using the wonders of nature. Each day is filled with discovery – gathering leaves, pinecones, bark and stones to tranform into unique works of art. From collages to twig sculptures, students learn how to turn natural materials into imaginative creations while developing a deeper appreciation for the outdoors.

Manners Matter Camp
June 15-17
Rising 3rd -Rising 5th
Christian Academy of Indiana or Christian Academy of Louisville

This engaging summer camp helps elementary students build confidence through learning proper ettiquette, polite manners and strong conversation skills in fun, interactive ways and through a biblical worldview lens. The experience concludes with a special ettiquette brunch where students can practice and showcase everything they’ve learned.

Lego Camp
June 15-18
Rising 1st – Rising 3rd
Christian Academy of Indiana Only

Students will develop creativity, problem solving and basic engineering thinking through hands-on Lego building challenges. Campers will practice collaboration, planning and perseverance while designing and improving their builds.

Christian Academy of Indiana and Louisville Families – Registration is now open for our upcoming 2026 Summer Theatre Camp and we would love for your student to be a part of this creative and engaging experience.

Our camp is designed for students of all experience levels who are interested in acting, singing and stage production. Throughout the camp, students will participate in interactive workshops focused on acting techniques, movement and voice. They will also collaborate with peers to rehearse and display their hard work at a final performance for family and friends.

Camp Details:

• Dates: June 1 – 5  and  8 – 12
• Location: Christian Academy of Indiana
• Grade Levels (based on the 2025 – 2026 academic school year): Elementary (K – 4), Middle School (5 – 7) and  High School (8 – 12)
• Times: Middle and High School from 8:30 a.m. – 12 p.m., Elementary from 1 – 4:30 p.m.

For further details, please view our camp flyer.

Spots are limited so we encourage you to register early to secure your place! Click here to register your student.

If you have any questions or would like additional information, please don’t hesitate to reach out Dr. Jason Branim, Theatre Camp Director, at [email protected]. We’re excited to work with your student and help them build skills, try new things and enjoy being part of a theatre group.

Monday, March 16, 2026 12:52 PM EDT

By Abriana Herron

Students open their lockers at the Christian Academy of Indiana’s new middle school facility. The school system recently finished construction on the expansion project. (Photo provided by Christian Academy of Indiana)

NEW ALBANY, Ind. – Students at Christian Academy of Indiana are settling into a newly opened middle school building on the school’s New Albany campus.

The two-story facility, which serves fifth through eighth graders, opened earlier this month and now houses about 400 students and 35 faculty members. The building includes classrooms, labs and collaborative learning spaces designed specifically for middle school students.

Superintendent Darin Long said the moment students first walked through the doors was memorable.

“It was great to see all those smiles on the faces when they came walking in,” Long said in an interview with Inside INdiana Business. “Very exciting time. You don’t get to see that very often in a career — a whole brand-new school opening.”

The expansion comes as Christian Academy of Indiana experiences significant enrollment growth. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the campus had about 700 students. That number has grown to around 1,300 this school year.

Long said several factors contributed to the increase, including long-term community growth, shifting priorities for families after the pandemic and Indiana’s Choice Scholarship Program.

Originally, school leaders planned a smaller building that would open in August 2025. However, after reviewing enrollment trends, Long said administrators paused the project and redesigned the facility to nearly double its size.

Construction ultimately produced a 44,000-square-foot facility connected to existing campus buildings. The expansion also included improvements such as additional cafeteria space and traffic flow upgrades.

Teachers and students are enjoying the new space Long said.

“One student, my favorite said, ‘Ooh, this is Gucci,’” he said. “I had to make sure that was a good thing, which it is.”

Long speaks more on student and teacher reactions to the new middle school facility.

During construction, the school temporarily relocated its fifth-grade class to nearby Graceland Baptist Church, about five miles away. Students were bused there for daily classes before returning to the main campus for electives and extracurricular activities.

The exterior of Christian Academy of Indiana’s middle school wing. (Photo provided by Christian Academy of Indiana)

The new building also introduces a different structure for middle school grades. Fifth and sixth graders share the first floor, while seventh and eighth graders are on the second floor. The arrangement is designed to ease the transition from elementary school to middle school.

“Most students go from one teacher in fifth grade to seven in sixth grade,” Long said. “So we thought if we could take that over a two-year time frame, that that would be better for the kids.”

Long said the goal of the expansion is to continue meeting demand from families seeking Christian education in the region.

“We want to come along other Christian families and partner with them to help disciple their children,” Long said.

Christian Academy School System operates campuses in both southern Indiana and Louisville, Kentucky, serving about 3,200 students across the two states. The Indiana campus opened in 2005 after two local Christian schools merged to create the current preschool-through-12th grade campus.

Next year, the system will celebrate its 50th anniversary.

The $9 million Christian Academy of Indiana facility is located at 1000 Academy Drive.

Christian Academy School System

By Olivia Estright – Reporter, Louisville Business First

Mar 16, 2026

• Christian Academy of Indiana opened a $9 million middle school facility in New Albany.
• The school system serves 3,000 students across Louisville and Southern Indiana campuses.
• Enrollment reached an all-time high of more than 1,300 students this year at CAI.

The second-largest independent school in the Louisville area just unveiled its $9 million middle school facility in New Albany, Indiana.

The Christian Academy of Indiana facility is located at 1000 Academy Drive. The 44,000-square-foot building serves fifth through eighth grade students.

Bayus Design Works was the lead architect on the project, and Koetter Construction was the general contractor. Construction began in April 2025.

The school features classrooms, science labs, art rooms, a choir room, a media center, education resource rooms and a secured entrance. A spokesperson for the school said students began attending classes in the facility March 2.

According to a Christian Academy of Indiana release, the project also includes a 2,800-square-foot expansion of the cafeteria and a new campus entrance road, which eases traffic congestion on Grant Line Road.

In a previous LBF report, a spokesperson said the building was originally meant for students in sixth through eighth grades, but the school decided to expand the project once the decision was made to include fifth-grade students to facilitate a smoother transition into middle school.

The school’s K-5 to K-8 enrollment for the 2025-26 school year is 939 students, according to Business First research. That makes it the second largest independent school in the region.

The school has been experiencing record growth with its enrollment sitting at more than 1,300 students, an all-time high for CAI.

The middle school’s opening comes less than two years after the system opened the doors to a new $5 million classroom building on its English Station campus in Louisville.

The new 15,000-square-foot facility houses the school’s Junior Academy program for 3- and 4-year-olds and includes eight classrooms.

In total, in pre-K through 12th grade, the school system serves 3,000 students in Louisville and Southern Indiana.

CHRISTY AVERY [email protected]

NEW ALBANY – “VALOR.”

That’s the word spelled out on the staircase at Christian Academy Indiana’s new middle school, paired with words that represent its characteristics: V for vision; A for attitude; L for love; O for ownership; and R for respect.

Those traits, said eighth-grader Sophia, are what make her proud to be a student at Christian Academy.

For eighth-grader Sophia, Christian Academy’s new middle school is an example of how the district has grown since she began in preschool. She said the school’s motto, “valor,” inspires her to deepen her faith and be kind to others without judgement.

“I really like the idea, because it reminds me to grow in my faith with God, and it reminds me that even though I’m young, that doesn’t mean that I can’t,” she said.

Sophia is one of around 1,000 students settling into Christian Academy Indiana’s new 44,000-square-foot middle school facility, which opened last week.

A $9 million undertaking, the school includes 26 new classrooms, a media center, education resource rooms, three new science labs, two art rooms and a choir room, along with an expansion of 2,800 square feet to the school’s cafeteria.

“We are truly blessed to be able to add a new building for our 5th to 8th grades,” said Christian Academy Superintendent Darin Long in a Monday release. “Not only does this benefit our middle grades, but it will also allow our high school to expand in both classroom space and course offerings, along with new learning pathways.”

The new addition gives the district’s middle school students a dedicated space, where before they were part of Christian Academy’s upper school, which combined middle and high school. The building was originally meant for students in sixth through eighth grades, but the school opted to expand it to include fifth grade students to ease the transition into middle school.

Principal Taylor Jarman, who joined Christian Academy at the start of the 2025-26 school year, said the district was looking at long-term planning over the past couple of years and saw its number of families growing. When thinking about how to expand their facilities to accommodate, separating the middle and high schools was the natural next step.

“Getting everyone here underneath one roof all together has been awesome,” he said. “Getting to see more families come in and be a part of Christian Academy.”

Christian Academy Indiana’s new 44,000-square-foot middle school opened March 2. The facility, which holds students in grades 5-8, creates a larger space for students with added resources including a choir room, science labs, a media space, an expanded cafeteria and 26 new classrooms.

Koetter Construction was the general contractor for the project, and Bayus Design Works served as lead architect.

The school is structured in “hubs” for each grade level, where students are surrounded by their peers in a dedicated wing. While fifth grade was previously a part of Christian Academy Elementary School, Jarman said merging it with sixth through eighth helps hit the four key grades where students begin asking foundational questions in their education.

Staff members wrestled with how to create a unique middle school culture separated from that of the upper school, and found their answer in the concept of valor, which Jarman said encourages students to think about who they want to be as young men and women.

“That is where a student can show up and say, ‘I feel belonging here. I feel like people care about me,’” he said. “We have great teachers that do that every day, but are we setting up our building to feel that way? I think it’s something really, really special.”

Along with the added amenities for students, the new facility also includes collaborative learning spaces for teachers to facilitate group work and presentations in a relaxed environment outside of the traditional classroom. More meeting rooms were added, as well as a bigger office for the school’s counselor to meet with students.

Having a separate middle school will also allow the high school, which has dealt with space constraints, room to expand their offerings for students, Jarman said.

For fifth-grader Eli, the most exciting part of the new middle school is being able to be closer to his sister, who is part of Christian Academy Elementary’s fourth-grade class. Included in the renovation was a connecting tunnel running between the elementary and middle schools, allowing students and staff to access each area without even having to go outside.

Eli also loves the middle school’s new library, where he can check out books like his current read, “The Hunger Games.”

Included in the new middle school was an expansion of 2,800 square feet to the existing cafeteria at the “upper” school, which included middle and high school levels before the separation. Hanging in the cafeteria are flags from dozens of countries around the world, representative of Christian Academy’s diverse student population.

“There’s just so much to read here, and it’s pretty comfortable,” he said.

During construction, students in the middle grades attended classes at Graceland Church for a semester in the interim.

On his first day back at Christian Academy, Eli said, he was nervous — specifically about the transition to using a locker, a classic big-kid status symbol. In the week since, however, he’s figured out the twists and turns to enter his combination.

“I thought it was going to be like the elementary building that we have over there, but it was very different,” he said. “The lockers really scared me. I didn’t think that I would be able to get it. It wasn’t really natural for me, because I really struggled at first.”

Sophia said she was excited upon hearing of the new addition last year because she remembers how much she looked forward to middle school as a fifth-grader. Her own sister was a fifth grader when the new building was announced, and Sophia said she thought it was a great opportunity for younger students like her sister to engage with and learn from older kids.

“I feel like that’s a really cool experience for the fifth graders that they get to experience middle school a little bit earlier than most kids do,” she said. “The week before we got to move into this building, I was nervous because I didn’t know where my teachers were going to be, and I would have a new locker. But it’s actually going really well, and it’s beautiful.”

As if the indoor expansion wasn’t enough, the renovations also include a new campus entrance road to help ease traffic for families coming in from Grant Line Road.

“That has been huge when it comes to traffic flow around our entire campus,” Jarman said.

On their first day at the new school last Monday, Jarman said students were glad to have more space to move around, creating a calmer environment. Students and staff held a first-day meeting, where they delivered morning announcements, prayed and read the Bible together.

“I think we’ve seen that a lot in just how they’re interacting,” he said. “I think a lot of them have really enjoyed coming back, too, because they were by themselves at Graceland for a while. We’re still figuring things out, which is really fun, but I think just getting to see them enjoy the process and the space once we did the move was really nice.”

Sophia, who has been at Christian Academy since preschool, said the new school is a reminder of the growth she’s seen in the district. As someone who struggles with anxiety, she added Christian Academy has helped bring peace into her life.

“I’m so thankful that all of our teachers can pray with us and can talk to us about different things,” she said. “I’m just so thankful that I get to come to this school, because a lot of kids don’t.”

Performances

Thursday, March 5 – Saturday, March 7, at 7 p.m. each evening.

Tickets

Adults – $10 with an additional $1.50 processing fee

Students – $5 with an additional $1.25 processing fee

At the Door – $15

Purchase online at cai.booktix.com.

Congratulations to all of our Scholastic Art Competition winners! 

Honorable Mention

Ava Butler

Olivia Harambasic

Addison Jackson (2)

Laura Toby

Silver Key

Laura Toby

Athena Bayyoud

Bella Morones (2)

Lucy Wilson

Sofia Beatty

Gold Key

Ben Adams

Laura Toby

Enjoy this presentation of the winning pieces!