Rivermont Collegiate wants to insure its future. So Wednesday the college preparatory school in Bettendorf officially kicked off a 6 million dollar capital campaign.
Headmaster Max Roach says the money will pay for capital projects, programs, and help build the endowment. The capital projects include renovations and new construction so the school can once again enroll boarding students.
"First of all programmatically, the more kids you have, the more electives you can offer. Also I think equally important, the Quad Cities economy is such that we want to keep our tuition low and keep the Rivermont experience affordable for everyone."
His goal is to enroll boarding students from the region, the US, and from around the world - about 16 will begin living on campus next fall, with a total of 35 to 45 boarding students soon after that.
"It would difficult to quantify the economic impact of these kids, but I'll tell you it will be significant in the short term. In the long-term, un-quantifiable."
Pledges for the Rivermont campaign already total 900,000 dollars.
In phase one of the project, the carriage house will be remodeled into a dormitory, while phase two calls for a new building on the campus for classrooms and more dorm rooms.