Burlington board approves special-use permit for Faith Christian Academy at Glen Hope Baptist Church

The Burlington Board of Adjustment on May 12 approved a special-use permit allowing Faith Christian Academy to operate a kindergarten-through-12th-grade program inside Glen Hope Baptist Church at 911 North Avenue.

Board of Adjustment Chairman Steve Heinemann opened the quasi-judicial hearing and called on city planning staff to present details of the application and the Technical Review Committee's site-plan approval. Jeff McClintock, the city's principal planner, said the TRC approved site plan TRC-26-09 on May 1, 2026, and listed conditions including no building expansions or new construction, requirement of colored floor plans that delineate school and church spaces, prohibition on using Delaware Avenue for drop-off/pick-up, and staggered start and dismissal times.

The applicant team — represented by counsel Julian Dobie and witnesses from the school and church — told the board the proposal would use less than 4,000 square feet of the church's roughly 47,000 square-foot facility and would not require renovations. "Faith Christian Academy, has been in existence, for several years" and currently serves about "Right around 150" students with 22 staff, counsel and the school's principal said during testimony.

Principal Carmen Bullard described the school's daily schedule and operations, saying school hours would run about 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with staggered dismissals so students would be offsite by about 3:30 p.m. She told the board the school's educational model limits class size to 14 to serve students with learning differences and that athletics and some after-school activities are handled through a city contract for off-site facilities. On building security, Bullard said the church already has extensive surveillance and the school maintains a written security plan reviewed by fire officials.

Engineer and parent-board member Wayne Wyatt outlined parking and circulation plans, estimating the Delaware Avenue-side lot has approximately 84 spaces and saying the school would typically need about 30 parking spaces at peak times. "It's about 47,000 square feet of space, that the church, has. We need to use less than 4,000 of those," Wyatt testified.

Pastor Louis Baber of Glen Hope Baptist, sworn as a witness, said the church supports the partnership and described neighborhood outreach and prior use of the facility. Counsel Julian Dobie closed by arguing the evidence shows the proposal complies with the city's Unified Development Ordinance special-use standards.

Board members questioned the applicants about prior special-use approvals for the site, enrollment history and whether the school had yet begun operating at the North Avenue location; city planning staff clarified the school was not operating at the site at the time of the hearing. After closing the evidentiary portion, the board deliberated on the UDO standards and voted to approve the special-use permit with the ten TRC conditions included in the packet.

Legal counsel for the board said he would prepare a draft order documenting the decision. The meeting then adjourned.