Capping years of struggling to “keep the school together with baling wire,” as Principal James Smith described it, the Antelope Valley Adventist School celebrated the opening of its brand-new, state-of-the-art facilities on Dec. 16. The new school complex opened for classes Jan. 7.

Smith and Master of Ceremonies Ed Jones welcomed everyone to the grand opening ceremony. Other leaders helped to describe the original dreams, planning process and construction of the 17,000-square-foot school plant for the K-8 school.

During the ceremony, the school honored 14 platinum contributors ($5,000), including Wal-Mart Corp, who helped furnish the classrooms and offices.

Five grade-level classrooms with teachers' offices, administrative offices, library, kindergarten and pre-school classrooms, kitchen and gymnasium form a quadrangle, providing student security.

Funding had been assured through the efforts of the late Attorney Jerry Wiley, according to Lorenzo Paytee, Los Angeles Adventist Academy principal and retired SCC secretary. “The law that Wiley and others were able to get passed,” noted Paytee, “required government agencies who take property from charitable organizations to pay replacement value rather than comparable real estate property value.” This legislation added substantial funding for AVAS when, due to future redevelopment in the City of Lancaster, the city offered property and funds to build a replacement school so the former AVAS site could be utilized in a large city park. The school building committee, after prayerfully considering all aspects, felt that this was God’s answer to the school’s many pending problems.

Noting the quality of the educational program, general contractor Wade Sawyer enrolled his son in the school, as did other sub-contractors. Sawyer provided ceramic tile and all of the school’s blinds and many other items.

“The efforts of principal/teacher Jim Smith, building committee chair LeeRoy Halley, school board chair Mrs. Helsa Boyle, Elder and Mrs. Edmond Jones and others,” said Paytee, “also proved how decades of positive Christian witnessing can reap such overwhelming good will.

“The Mayor of Lancaster stated that his children attended our Antelope Valley School some years back. A prominent California assemblyperson reported that she had attended Vacation Bible School and Sabbath school with her Adventist neighbors as a little girl,” Paytee added. “Clearly, AVAS has helped make Adventists well-known and well thought of in the Lancaster community.”