Ankeny Christian finally removes old movie theater seats as it remodels auditorium

An Ankeny private school is remodeling the auditorium where students' parents may have seen "Forrest Gump" back in the 1990s when the space was a movie theater.

Ankeny Christian Academy, 1604 W. First St., is working on a major renovation project that includes an overhaul of the school's auditorium and main entrance. The school's auditorium — which now hosts a chapel, stage productions and other events — was once a screen at Fridley's Paramount movie theater, before the growing school took over the building in 2000.

Until now, the auditorium included the movie theater's original red folding seats, complete with cupholders, from when Ankeny Christian moved in.

"When we posted the seats on Facebook, people were like, 'Oh my gosh, I remember watching 'Titanic' in those seats!'" Abby Bogaards, communications director for Ankeny Christian Academy, said during a tour with the Des Moines Register.

But it was time for an update as the chairs were starting to show their age — ripped fabric, broken mechanisms or general squeakiness. Meanwhile, the school's use of the auditorium has grown: last school year, students put on a production of "Little Women," the first full-length Broadway musical in its history, complete with a live pit orchestra.

Community members snagged some of the old chairs for themselves, while others were thrown away. Some were not in a condition to be saved.

After a $300,000 fundraising campaign, Ankeny Christian is now refreshing the auditorium to be more attractive to visitors and accessible to people with disabilities. The remodel will increase the number of seats, add new paint and update the technical equipment.

The stage also will double as a music classroom.

"It was time for our space to reflect the excellence that happens here," Bogaards said.

More: Ankeny Christian Academy hires new secondary principal Joe Venema

Other construction includes opening up office space for the school's growing administrative team and updating the entrance area, including new flooring to replace the original tile and adding a special design on the wall for photo opportunities.

Work is expected to be complete by the time school starts again in August.

"We are excellent at sports. We are excellent at academics. We are excellent in the fine arts," Bogaards said. "When you invite people to a space, it needs to feel excellent."

Ankeny Christian Academy grows in old movie theater and strip mall

Local families who sought a different option to educate their children formed Ankeny Christian Academy in 1992. Operating out of rented space at a local church, the school opened in 1993 with seven students and two teachers and celebrated its first graduating class in 2000.

The school soon outgrew its rented rooms and moved into a renovated warehouse office space off Oralabor Road. In need of a new space once again, Ankeny Christian took over what was a movie theater off First Street in 2000.

Fridley Theaters — an Iowa-based company that owns and operates several cinemas across the state — opened the Paramount in 1990 with four screens and a video store.

According to Register archives, the theater complex opened in what was previously the Frontier Shopping Center, which had stores in the 1980s such as The Clothes Closet and Sitzmann's Men's Store. The Paramount later expanded to five screens and became a discount theater for second-run films in 1999 after Fridley's Springwood 9 opened across town.

The Paramount closed after 10 years in early 2000. Fridley determined it was no longer profitable after the Springwood opened and announced plans to sell to Ankeny Christian, which had a lease due to expire at the end of the year.

"We literally put our mortgages on the line to fund that, so we're all on the hook if things go south," Les Leonard, an Ankeny Christian founder, said this week of the school board at the time.

Volunteers worked "feverishly" over the summer, the Register reported, to renovate a cinema into classrooms as families offered financial and labor support. Some volunteers worked five days a week into the night and children helped scrape gum off the auditorium seats, put up drywall and mud the floors.

One volunteer, Doug Reed, even left his full-time nursing job to serve 15-hour days as a full-time contractor to make the school a reality.

"All summer long," Leonard said. "It was quite an ordeal."

Their work paid off, and Ankeny Christian opened for 140 students in a permanent space for the first time.

Ankeny Christian enrollment maxed out due to high demand

By the 2010s, Ankeny Christian's population was continuing to grow, and the school grew with it into the attached strip mall.

The school now occupies the entire building as students attend class in what was once a donut shop, a dry cleaner or a movie theater that showed "Titanic."

Seeing how much Ankeny Christian has grown and changed since the idea first percolated in 1992, followed by years of sacrifice by family and staff to keep the doors open, is "immensely rewarding," Leonard said.

"I mean, I get goosebumps," he said.

The school now has about 525 students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Including an off-site preschool, there are about 580 students.

Ankeny Christian's growth started to ramp up during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bogaards said, attracting families when the school fully re-opened in August 2020.

Enrollment is now maxed out with more than 40 students per grade. The school had to stop taking entries for a waitlist, which has hit 1,000 names.

The demand has grown even higher with the state's Education Savings Account program, which offers up to $7,600 in public funds per student to cover families' private school expenses.

Families with babies have called the school and asked to be put on the list years in advance.

"It's really hard to be a community member and not be able to serve all of the community that we want," Bogaards said. "We're not alone."

Officials, of course, would love to expand the school's physical space to serve more students, but such a project could cost tens of millions of dollars. In the meantime, the school is investing to improve the current space while building out programming, activities and staffing.

"We have to try and find a way to make that happen," Bogaards said. "But in the meantime, we can't forget about the kids who are here."

Chris Higgins covers the northern and eastern suburbs for the Register. Reach him at chiggins@registermedia.com or 515-423-5146 and follow him on Twitter @chris_higgins_.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Ankeny Christian remodels former movie auditorium after massive growth