Veritas Academy is in the growth business, and business is booming.

It's the type of growth that could be characterized as development. It's the type of growth that originates from within. It's the kind of growth that is fostered in a healthy environment.

"When God gives growth, you've got to recognize that," said Ty Fischer, who's been the head of school at Veritas Academy for 29 years. "Here at Veritas, our effort has been toward the mission of growing and cultivating students. We have seen growth, and at the core of that growth is an exceptional faculty. What we're doing is preparing these young men and women to respond to callings and take God with them."

Veritas Academy's current expansion project will provide the classical Christian school with greater abilities to provide better educational opportunities to more students from preschool to 12th grade. After Veritas Academy doubled its student population over the last seven years, the school is now doubling the size of its learning space at 26 Hillcrest Ave., Leola.

Veritas Academy conducted an official groundbreaking ceremony for its $7 million expansion project on Jan. 20. A few days earlier, the project experienced a soft opening in the form of some initial excavating.

The expansion project is expected to be completed by the beginning of the 2026-27 school year.

"This expansion is not just about numbers," said Fischer. "Everything we do here harkens back to the Bible and a classical Christian education. What this expansion will allow us to do is more fully form our students. In that formation, we want them to have those skills from a classical liberal arts education."

The two-story expansion project is being constructed on the west side of Veritas Academy's 11-acre campus. The project will provide Veritas with a new gymnasium, more classrooms, a common area and an updated science lab.

"We've run out of space," said Fischer. "Almost all of our space right now is classroom space. The expansion project will just about double our square footage. It will provide our faculty with opportunities to better support our entire program."

"We love our building," added Fischer. "The great thing is that our architects took some of the thematic aspects of the building and built it into the new construction. It looks classical. We don't want our building to be extravagant, but we want it to be functional and beautiful."

Veritas Academy embarked on a capital campaign project to financially support the expansion in the summer of 2022. As it neared the finish line, Veritas dubbed the final push for the last $700,000, "A Place for We."

"God has blessed us. He's been very good to us," said Fischer, a resident of Leola. "This is the first major capital campaign and construction campaign we've done at the school. We received a lot of feedback from donors, and the last 10% was the public phase of the campaign. A lot of the giving was in the quiet phase of the plan. All glory be to God. He used the generosity of the community to make it possible. As we faithfully went out to our community, God opened so many hearts to make this possible."

Currently, there are 409 students enrolled at Veritas Academy. The majority of that student population hails from the Conestoga Valley, Ephrata, ELANCO, Manheim Township, Warwick and Hempfield school districts.

"Veritas is here to meet a need," said Fischer. "It's a need that I think all communities have. We want to form young men and women in the image of Christ. One of the greatest distinctions of our school is just the joyfulness. We want to produce students our community can be proud of. We want the joy in the building to flow into Leola and the greater Lancaster County community."

Veritas Academy, which was formally established 30 years ago, employs 53 staff members, more than 40 of whom are teachers. The school receives funding from tuition, the Pennsylvania Educational Improvement Tax Credit program and community donations.

"We're a younger school," said Fischer. "From the beginning, we thought we were doing good work. Now, we have a good track record. Not only do we talk a good game, we have proof. What's happened over time is that the mission and vision haven't changed at all. God has actually grown us up."

For additional information, go to http://www.veritasacademy.com.