|

How to Start a Christian School

How to Start a Christian School

Part 1- The First Decisions

I believe that all of the following decisions listed in Part I should be completely nailed down before you take any other steps. These decisions will serve as the foundation for who your school is and how it will carry out its mission in the years to come.

Select your leadership team.

Things to consider:

  • This team will likely become your first Board members, so they must be comprised of men and women that have a solid and mature Christian worldview. This is critical to your leadership team’s ability to discern the potential for the implementation of any secular ideas in the formation of your school.
  • It is not always possible to recruit the ideal kind of leader that you want on the team, but ideally you want men and women that are in ministry, business, and the home. Specifically, a Christian accountant is helpful as well as a mom or two that is well connected to many other parents. That mom will be able to share her own experience as well as give you the pulse of other moms in the church as this project develops. Lastly, one or two educators can be helpful but be aware that secular educators may be so indoctrinated by the secular school system that some of their suggestions may be counterproductive to your planning and decision process.
  • What is the commitment level of your leaders? Are they mildly interested in talking about the creation of a Christian school or are they passionate about the idea?
  • Do your leaders have courage? Starting and running a Christian school is no cake walk and they will likely receive some negative reactions from some Christian parents for their efforts.
  • Can your leaders articulate the philosophy and mission of the school? If a potential team leader cannot articulate great reasons for having a Christian school, they probably should not be on the team leading the charge.
  • Be careful to not have a team that has members that must have every answer to every problem before they move forward, or members that are so fearful about making a mistake that they can’t help the project more ahead. New ventures always have risks! This is why we have Proverbs 16:9 to help us have the right perspective.
  • Be careful to not have too many pastors on your leadership team (sorry pastors!). We love that pastors are dedicated and called to preaching and teaching, but most pastors are not gifted in the area of business outside the church and Christian schools are a kind of business as well as a ministry.
  • Assign some key reading materials to the group and allow time for discussion during the planning sessions. I highly recommend Roger Erdvig’s book, Beyond Biblical Integration” https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Biblical-Integration-Immersing-Worldview/dp/1733025650. You may also want to review a small booklet called, “If God Built a School, What Would It Look Like” available here on this site under resources and publications. “Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning”, by Douglas Wilson is a good read (https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0891075836/ref=nosim/onionskinpres-20), and “Scorners and Mockers”, is a must read for how you think about discipline and your school’s culture (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E3G9L9S/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1).
  • After you have pursued all that has been laid our above and cannot pull together a solid team of committed, passionate, and courageous Christians, go no further. I do not believe that God has given you the horses needed to run this particular race.

Create your mission and philosophy. This is the heart and soul of your school and is more important than any other aspect of a Christian school. Your mission and philosophy will serve as the foundation of everything- your hiring process, your school’s rules and guidelines, discipline, interactions with parents, and of course, how you teach the children. Things to consider:

  • What will it take to be a real Christian school? Christ first, last and everything in between. Create a mission that reflects that.
  • Some folks in the Christian school world will tell you to go visit other Christian schools in order to glean ideas, concerns, and pitfalls from their experience. In theory, this would be helpful, but in reality, many Christian schools are Christian in name only and for the most part reflect the same goals and philosophies that you find in a secular school. Unfortunately, those “Christian” schools are also the schools that may appear to be most successful. Often, they have the largest schools, the prettiest buildings, and the most money. I suggest that you visit only the schools that are most faithful to the cause of Christ. However, you may or may not know them by reputation in the community, so you will have to be discerning when you visit.
  • If you have not involved any other churches and you are open to partnering, you may want to meet with other church leaders now and share your vision for a Christian school. A partnership between 2 or more like minded churches will share the burden of starting a school, bring greater enrollment, and most important, expand the ministry.
  • Remember that Christian schools don’t make Christians and should not represent themselves in that way. God makes Christians, and He works where His word is taught and preached. Our goal is to be faithful in the Christian teaching of the children and trust Him for the rest.
  • Statement of Faith or Doctrinal Statement. It is critically important that you clearly state what the school believes and I recommend that you have enrolling parents sign off that they agree and understand your full Doctrinal Statement. In addition, I strongly recommend that the document also have a clause where parents agree that if they are no longer able to support the school administration and school policies, the parents will voluntarily withdraw their children from the school. This protects the school against any legal attacks should you have to enforce something in your school handbook which is based in part on your Doctrinal Statement.
  • Governance model. Lots of pros and cons here, but I found that our school did well with its own Board of Directors being overseen by the church Board of Elders. This type of governance allowed the school to govern itself while also giving the church the power to approve or remove a school board member if the school began to drift from its mission or theological moorings.
  • Enrollment Model- There are two approaches to enrollment that you must consider. The first is typically called the “Evangelistic model” and it allows for parents of any faith or no faith to enroll their children in the school. Proponents of this model state that they have the opportunity to evangelize both children and their parents in their school. The other model is called the “Covenant model” and this approach enrolls children from families that have at least one professing Christian parent. Proponents of this model believe that because parents are partnering with the school and are intimately involved with the child’s Christian education, the school must be partnering with a like-minded parent. Remember that parents are always the people who are primarily responsible before God for the education of their children. They may contract with a school to assist them in this great Ephesians 6:4 responsibility, but they are the primary educators. Our school chose the Covenant model and I was grateful we did. We found that partnering with Christians who had varying differences in what they believe the Bible taught was challenging enough and I am quite sure that some were also evangelistic opportunities.
  • Enrollment and Disenrollment policy. This will be an area of significant discussion and a place where schools can easily stumble. Most school leaders feel the heart pull to enroll every student that applies, no matter the financial, academic, or family situation. However, there are many negative consequences of enrolling students that are academically very far behind their age appropriate grade, have a history of behavior problems, or have parents that present themselves during the enrollment process as future problems for your teachers and administration. These kinds of students and parents will demand an inordinate amount of time and energy often to the detriment of other school families. I would recommend that you do not think of your school as a rehabilitation resource for troubled students/families because it will deter from achieving your mission in many ways. Some school administrators and their admissions people struggle with turning new people away and they struggle with expelling students/families that are not working out, but you must realize that you are not responsible to unwind the poor choices that families have made in the past nor are you called to rescue every child out of their situation. Additionally, I am sure you will desire to represent your school to the parents and community as a school of academic excellence in an environment that supports the social and spiritual growth of the student. If so, you may be able to enroll and integrate a limited (no more than one per classroom) number of challenging students/parents into your school, but if that type of enrollment dominates your school, you will soon lose your integrity with the parents. Be sure to have clear enrollment policies and clear disenrollment policies in your parent handbook. You can be sure that both you and your parents will be referencing that important book when difficulties arise.

Part II- Turning the Corner

It may have taken you a year or more to get this far, and that’s fine. What is important is that your decisions have been made carefully prayerfully as you have asked the Lord for wisdom throughout the process. I cannot emphasize enough how your leadership, philosophy and mission will affect the school (positively or negatively) over the next decades.

Now that you have come to this point in the process, you may want to expand your team by adding committees to do the research that is needed.

Details, Details. Details Matter

Law

  • Research what does your state requires from private schools. If you are going to build anything (building, modifications, or additions), check with the state and the local building codes.
  • Research Christian school organizations that might be helpful. Be aware that there are some Christian school associations that are not theologically sound. Don’t assume anything. If you find a faithful Christian school association, they may be able to assist on information regarding state requirements for private schools such as student-teacher ratios and faculty qualifications.
  • Don’t worry about accreditation at the early grades. You can apply for that later.

Employees

  • Do you have a process in place for hiring employees?
  • Do you have an employee handbook and other supporting documents that you will need to interview new candidates?
  • Have you determined all of the positions that you will need to run the school (ex. teachers, teacher assistants, administrative support, business manager, admissions person, Principal/Headmaster, food services)?
  • Begin the process of looking for your first head of school. The ideal person would be a strong, mature Christian with a background in education, a passion for Christian worldview education, the ability and willingness to communicate in front of a group, and some sense of business. If you are starting only elementary grades (K-3rd), the need for a person that understands how teaching worldview changes in middle school and high school is not yet needed. However, it should be clear that a new or additional leader with those skills will be needed as you approach the 5th
  • Once you have hired the head of school, begin the teacher hiring and support staff hiring process. A word about hiring- Christian schools are notorious for not paying their employees a fair wage. Often the job opportunity and low salary are presented as a ministry opportunity and because it is ministry, a financial sacrifice (low pay) is expected from the employee. I do not believe this is a Biblical approach because a laborer is worthy of their wages and the wages should be fair. As a practical matter, the old saying goes, “you get what you pay for”, and I have hiring on the cheap result in many negative consequences in the classroom.

Facilities

  • If you are using the church facilities, you will need to figure out schedules, use of furniture, shared expenses, etc. Do not minimize the importance of this step. Unfortunately, the shared usage of rooms in a church is often a foothold for bickering between the co users of that space (things go missing, trash left behind).
  • If you are going to build, you should be interviewing potential contractors. I am not going to write anything else about that as it is a journey all to itself!
  • Decide on which grades will be the start of the new school. I strongly recommend starting with kindergarten and adding a class each year. Certainly, you can be more aggressive if you believe you have the enrollment, but I would discourage starting more than K through 3rd Remember that you are playing the long game and in just 10 years, it is possible that you will be K-9th!
  • Decide on the model of Christian school- Classical, 5 day/week traditional, Hybrid). The model will depend on your own view of which way is the best to Christian educate, your resources (money, people, space), and the anticipated desires of your constituency.

Enrollment

  • Study the demographics in your community to help with enrollment projections.
  • Survey your church (or churches) to get a sense of interest in enrollment. Be ready to offer a well done informational piece for their consideration.
  • Finalize enrollment process and student handbook.

Finances and Fundraising

  • Continue to shape/build the budget.
  • Decisions regarding your philosophy of debt need to be made.
  • Do you need to have a fundraising campaign? This is a huge topic. I will be writing separately on this website about fundraising.

Marketing- This is a very important part of successfully starting a school. You must be able to effectively communicate your passion and vision to other church leaders as well as donors and potential school parents. Here are some of the things that will be very helpful in your marketing efforts.

  • Do you have a person in your group who is proficient making PowerPoint presentations or even developing your website? Every flyer, publication, PowerPoint, and website should clearly communicate the mission that you have put together for your school. Also, whatever you put together for the public to see, make sure it is high quality. Even the quality of the copy paper that you use to create a flyer sends a subtle message to the recipient. Make sure everything about your school looks good, feels good, and even smells good.
  • Select a person from your initial team or potential board who is knowledgeable and passionate about what you are doing and is not afraid to get up in front of people and communicate that passion and excitement.
  • Communicate early to your church family that you are considering a Christian school. Be a good listener so you can determine both the excitement for and resistance against your church starting at a Christian School. Identify objections and take the time to meet with folks in an effort to get them on board. Remember, most Christian parents do not have their children in a traditional Christian school or homeschool and have not carefully thought through the ramifications for their children. You can anticipate many discussions that could prove to be incredibly profitable for the church and its families.
  • Be prepared to talk about approximate tuition levels as well as opportunities for financial assistance. By this time, you should have also researched opportunities for school tax credits in your state, vouchers, or any other financial opportunities for those who want school choice.
  • Remember that every person hearing your message is a potential ambassador for your message to others, a school parent, or a donor.

Part III- The Home Stretch

Check it off:

  • Finalize the budget.
  • Have you arrived at creating your first Board of Directors?
  • Have you decided on the curriculum?
  • Is the website and other publications ready?
  • Faculty and Parent/student handbooks ready to go?
  • Office procedures manuals ready?
  • Have you created the school calendar?
  • Is the facility ready to show off to prospective parents? Remember, everything should look good, feel good, and smell good. If your building is not ready, a clear plan with illustrations of how it is going to look should be available.
  • Do you have everything ready to take applications for new students (website and paper).
  • You may consider Open House dates or other types of informational meetings, advertising in the local media, calling reporters for the local media to get the scoop on your new school, flyers, or mass emails to your church members, and more.

There is more to starting a school than what I have written here, but this isn’t a book! Lord willing, this has been a help and the Lord blesses your efforts to help families cherish and obey Ephesians 6:4.