George Nalley knelt on the ground Wednesday to pull a bolt out of a Lakota Christian Academy jungle gym and said he is taking things one step at a time.

Nalley, the former Wesleyan Native American Ministries general director, will start his role as director and principal of the newly formed Living Hope Academy this fall.

The Wesleyan ministry closed the K-12 Lakota Christian school last month as part of a restructure. Most of the staff and students will start at Living Hope, a K-8 school, nearby. About 45 or 50 students will be admitted into the new school.

"I'm working things out step by step," Nalley said.

The ministry donated curriculum and class materials to the new school, but Nalley will have to work to find continued funding. It will be a challenge, he said, because he can't call his old contacts from when he used to do fundraising for the Wesleyan ministry.

"I'm excited and a little bit scared. At this point, we don't have funds," he said.

The school will be housed in a Bethel Assembly of God building across from North Middle School on North Maple Avenue. The school will share space with the church's youth group until a new building is built for the youths later on, Nalley said.

Legally, Living Hope Academy will be included under Restored Life Outreach. The property that Lakota Christian Academy was on and six buildings will be auctioned July 1.

Lakota Christian Academy principal Guy Murray said the opening of a new school is bittersweet for him. He is moving to Kentucky next week to work in a boarding school.

"I think it's fantastic and much needed in North Rapid," he said. "I'm sad that my wife and I are not going to be here to be a part of it."

Nalley and a handful of neighborhood children worked to free a multi-colored jungle gym set from the ground Wednesday morning as staff cleared classrooms of books and papers.

Small painted handprints still decorated the walls in the kindergarten room, alongside students' names and "Class of 2017."

Former Lakota Christian Academy teacher Bonnie Cavallo rested on the step with another teacher, Bethany Nalley. Both will teach at the new school. Cavallo, who is tentatively scheduled to teach kindergarten, said she hopes to do much of the same work she did at Lakota Christian.

"We will not only shore them up academically, but it will be a place of healing and hope," she said.

Lakota Christian was a safe, small place for students who might fall through the cracks in a larger school, Nalley has said.

"It's about helping the kids with who they are," he said, especially Native American students. "The at-risk students hit the same problems in high school as the rest of the kids, but without a support system, they move to the back of the class and walk out."

The new building has been offered to the academy free of charge this year, and Nalley said he has faith that the money problem will work itself out.

"We're excited about what's going on," he said. "We're way up the road from where we were."

Contact Kayla Gahagan at 394-8410 or kayla.gahagan@rapidcityjournal.com