Some Thoughts on Developing a Christian School

This blog entry may seem to come out of the blue, but it stems from discussions I have heard happening in our community. Although I haven't been able to add much to these discussions, I have taken sometime to reflect and ponder just what I think about a Christian high school being established in our community because I really needed to wrestle with idea to find some clarity before entering the discussion. 

First, before establishing a Christian school for the benefit of our community, I believe that the vision needs to be bigger than our community. And the goal needs to encompass being a blessing and ministry to families, the community, the country and the world. 

Private, non-publicly funded Christian education is a privilege, a huge one. Having a school that is focused on giving a quality education with a Christian world view would be an amazing asset and bring so much glory to God, but if it is designed only for the those who can afford it and only for those in our community, I believe it will fall short of the potential impact such an institution could have in the world.  I believe God would be most honored if the vision of the school extended beyond the boarders of the Alexandria community and the great commission was fulfilled through the actions of the school, as well as the students sent out from the school.
 
Here are three specific ideas I have in regard to not keeping the blessing of a Christian education to “ourselves” (meaning Christian, middle-class families in Alexandria).

1) Make 10% of the intake from tuition and other funding available to scholarship children from local trailer park communities or other low-income houseing

2) Design the school as a boarding school, ready and available to accept international students from around the world (this could begin as home-boarding until the growth of the school afforded dorm facilities and staff)

3) Make plans for funding a school in a developing country (this would be after the school was well-established and running efficiently economically) and commit to a yearly short-term mission trip to this school

Along the lines of vision and purpose, I believe it is important to see the opening of a Christian school as a platform from which to have a ministry to students from all walks of life and backgrounds. And as a part of this mission to provide the highest quality of education possible so that when students leave they have as many doors of opportunity open to them as possible. God needs to be honored first and foremost, and part of honoring him will be to provide students with the most holistic education possible. But this requires well-trained teachers, a well-designed curriculum that is aligned from grade-level to grade-level, administrators who know how to lead teachers as shepherds caring for a flock, and a board who is steady in sticking to the vision and mission of the school.  What is best for students’ learning needs to be at the core of decision making, which means experienced educators need to be a huge part of the decision making processes.
    
In terms of making a plan: I believe it would be absolutely necessary to start with a vision of the big picture, but to figure out where to begin working toward that on a smaller scale. This would require determining what the building blocks for a successful school would look like, even on the smallest scale. From there it would be necessary to make a 2 year plan, a 5 year plan, a 10 year plan and so on and so forth. Setting goals and benchmarks for each stage of the plan.

Here is what I believe are the most essential ingredients to a Christian school’s educational, missional and financial success:

·      The curriculum needs to be of highest quality, 1) aligning content standards from grade level to grade level, 2) incorporating a Christian world view, 3) incorporating stories and traditions from around the world, 4) a grading system that aligns with the content standards, 5) aligning course requirements with college and university standard.  (*The International Baccalaureate curriculum is the best I have seen, but it is expensive to implement. However, it is in many ways superior curriculum to the AP curriculum offered in most US high schools because it is a more wholistic approach to understanding—not test driven.)

·      The teachers, administrators and governing board need to be mission-minded (great commission mission) and well-trained in their content areas and pedagogy. They need to be both committed to seeing students as souls in need of nurturing and minds in need of knowledge. They also need to be community-minded and able to live-out the Christian faith with their students and colleagues.  *I believe it would be most beneficial to have teachers from all over the world so that the school can be truly international and offer a Christian-International worldview to all students.

·      To make a school operational financially in such a small community will be challenging because tuition will be the main source of income. When tuition is high, there is automatically a barrier created that prevents students from being able to attend the school. The best way to solve this problem is to find ways to gain financial resources from beyond the community.  One end to this means would be bringing students from out of the country—boarding students. Many families from other countries are willing and able to pay anywhere from $35,000-50,000 to send their child to a western school (this would include boarding expenses). Not only does this add to the economic stability of the school, it adds diversity and creates an international environment. Allowing students and teachers (and the entire community) to be exposed to students from various cultures. This also opens the door for ministering to international students and their families. For example, a student may come from China and have no intentions of seeking Christianity (they are in it for a good education), but then they are exposed to the Christian community, find Jesus, and bring him back to their families and China (the great commission fulfilled in a unique way).

·      The school needs to bring unity and not competition to the community. This is my greatest fear of starting a new school, that there would become division among the families in the community and that all the lights would be taken out of the public schools, leaving only darkness. I don’t know what keeping unity would look like or how to make it work, but the school needs to be focused on representing the gospel honoring Christ, and in the process not create divides that would prevent the mission of the gospel from being carried out in our community. 


As I said in my most recent post, I live on the idealist end of the spectrum, and it is obvious my thoughts stem from my ideals. I realize that reality and ideals don't always find perfect balance in the world. But this is where my wrestling landed me and sometimes I think processing with the ideal in mind is a great place to start important discussions.