Prep school to move into City Hall, plans to honor students from its past
For 16 of its 17 years, Crestmont Christian Preparatory School has occupied space at Boerne First Baptist Church.
Those days will end when school dismisses for the year in May, as Crestmont Christian will move into the Old City Hall building at 402 E. Blanco Road, which was built as the city’s first campus.
As Boerne First Baptist grew, and as Crestmont Christian started to expand, the school board and administrators began looking around to find space for 125 students, with the potential for enrollment to reach 225 students.
“When we knocked on the door of the owner of the Old City Hall, he was not looking to offer that space,” said Alyssa DeLosSantos, principal of the kindergartento-12th grade school.
“Through an amazing turn of events, we then had the opportunity to rent that facility.”
— Alyssa DeLosSantos, principal
In what DeLosSantos described as a miracle, she said, “We found ourselves in another meeting with the owner. He had said to me, ‘I want to know more about the heart of this school.’” She added, “We got to share our story and, just through an amazing turn of events, we then had the opportunity to rent that facility.”
The building last functioned as a school in 1952, so Crestmont pupils will walk hallways that haven’t hosted students in almost 75 years.
“There are still a couple of people living who attended school there,” the principal said. “I don’t know that we can get them to the building, based on ability and age, but our desire is to get their story so that we can share it.”
DeLosSantos fully expects to open the school in mid-August for its 2026-27 academic year, with a building dedication sometime in September.
Crestmont Christian is part of the National Association of University Model Schools, linking like-minded schools across the nation, with several international schools as well.
NAUMS presents itself as “an educational community of Christ-followers, called together to a Kingdom model of discipleship that begins in the home,” according to its website.
“Our mission is making disciples; our service is excellence in education; and our strategy is partnering with parents,” the site added.
DeLosSantos echoes that sentiment about Crestmont.
“Our ‘why’ as a school is that we want to strengthen the family, and we do that by involving our parents in the process,” she said. “Our parents read the lesson plans. They get to help their students on our satellite classroom days.”
Classroom size in the elementary portion of the school is an “extremely manageable” 14 students to one teacher, which DeLosSantos called “a gorgeous size.”
“That allows for discipleship, it allows for helping students with their academic needs, and again, supporting the family,” she said.
Parents, she said, seek out the school for its mission and value.
“Parents want to be involved and they want to have ‘skin in the game’ and often they’re left feeling like, ‘How do I do that?’ So we provide a pathway for ‘Here’s how you might do that,’ and it’s beyond the plan,” she added.
The building’s history will be featured in hallways and classrooms, she said. When meeting with their architect, Crestmont made that request perfectly clear, she said.
“Even the first time we went in, we thought, ‘This is going to require some creativity,’ right?” she said, as there was no larger, open space for a sanctuary like the one at Boerne First Baptist. “And yet, we see the beauty of what will happen in this space.”
The original Boerne schoolhouse, built in 1874, is a two-room structure that exists behind the Old City Hall building and remains functional. The larger building seen from Blanco Road was constructed as the “Boerne Public School” in 1911.
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