Talk of The Towne Change Comes to Immanuel Lutheran

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”809″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]For Orange resident Terri Krause, Immanuel Lutheran School of Orange holds a special place. It was here that she attended 6th through 8th grade and where her children spent their preschool through middle school years. So when the decision was made to close all but the preschool recently, she was understandably saddened. “We’re really sorry to see the elementary and middle school close,” says Krause, who is Immanuel’s school secretary. “My son and daughter, now both in high school, really liked the school’s close–knit feel.” “The decision to close the school, which has been in existence since the church opened in 1923, was a difficult one,” says Bob Bartels, executive director of Immanuel, who cites shrinking enrollment as the reason for the closure. “We spent most of this past year considering and decided that closure, at least for now, was the prudent thing to do.” Immanuel Lutheran’s preschool will remain open, serving two to four year olds throughout the year. “We have a fully accredited, high–quality preschool program in a safe Christian environment that prepares children academically and socially for kindergarten,” says Dale Hartmann, a 35’year member of the church, who is a retired professor of Concordia University in Irvine. Bartels and Hartmann also stress that this is not necessarily the end of the road for the elementary and middle school portion of the school. “We are not officially ending, but are suspending the school for now,” says Bartels, whose grown sons also attended Immanuel. “Reopening is something we’ll be looking at possibly doing in the future.“ Immanuel Lutheran Church, which has a membership of 400, opened in 1923 as an offshoot of St. John’s Lutheran Church. “Former parishioners of St. John’s moved three blocks east to the ‘edge’ of town, bought a half–acre of Orange groves and built a church and school,” says Hartmann. For information regarding Immanuel Lutheran’s Preschool program, call the school’s office at (714) 538–2374 or visit ImmanuelOrange.org.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]