Tri-Cities Christian to open new campus next fall

KINGSPORT – Tucked away behind the busyness of Fort Henry Drive in Colonial Heights, sits the Tri-Cities Christian Academy upper school. However, that home for TCA's sixth through 12th grade students is only temporary. TCA's new upper school campus, located on Fordtown Road, just off Exit 56 of I-81, is set to open its doors to students in fall of 2027. The new campus has been a long-awaited project for TCA. It began in 2020, when Tri-Cities Christian School was purchased by Lakeway Christian Schools and turned into what is now TCA. The plan was to build a replica of Lakeway Christian Academy's middle and high school in White Pine, originally set to open in 2023, according to a 2021 Times News article. Due to a series of delays including COVID-19 complications, the timeline for the campus' completion has shifted, but Head of Schools Alex White shared that they are on schedule for a 2027 opening. "Due to COVID and complications from COVID and pricing and worldwide logistical issues, it's been pushed back, but as of currently, we're on schedule to open. The walls are coming up, and the construction continues to progress on schedule, and we're set to open in fall 2027," he said. TriCon Builders oversees the project. The Fordtown campus will have room for more than 100 students per grade and will eventually hold about 800 students. The campus will have separate wings for middle school and high school, and will include an 800 plus seat auditorium, two gymnasiums, a band complex, a choir suite, an art suite, a robotics lab, a culinary arts classroom, chemistry labs, a Christian life suite, an indoor athletics complex with an indoor football field, outdoor football, baseball, softball and soccer fields, a track and tennis courts among other features. Once the new campus is operational, TCA's elementary schoolers will also change locations. Currently, TCA educates out of three locations: the Early Learning Center, which teaches 3- and 4-year-olds, located in Boones Creek; the lower school, which includes kindergarten through fifth grade, located in Blountville; and the upper school located in the former Colonial Heights Middle School, off Lebanon Road. Once the upper school shifts to the Fordtown site, the lower school will shift to the Colonial Heights campus, allowing those class sizes to also increase to more than 100 students per grade. The new upper school campus is part of TCA's expansion efforts. According to White, TCA's student body has grown drastically since Lakeway acquired the school, and they plan to increase enrollment numbers even further. In the first three years of Lakeway's ownership, the student body grew from 120 students to over 450. The upper school alone is looking at around 300 students for the 2026-2027 school year. As previously stated, the new upper school campus will be able to accommodate over 800 students. "We see a great need for an alternative educational opportunity for parents," White said. "Folks who are simply looking for something different in a Christian education that we can provide a high level academic and extracurriculars, all provided within a Christian worldview."