I am now the Development Coordinator for Highroad Academy. For the next 6 months I have three goals:
- increase the profile of Highroad Academy in our community
- make sure our parents and church members know more about Highroad.
- work to increase enrollment in Highroad by 25 students for the 2011-2012 school year.
When we were newlyweds we returned to ORU so that Dave could finish his degree, as he only needed one year. It did not go well. Me getting stopped by a delusional border guard while crossing into the states was our first clue. We had a tough time making ends meet. Dave's department head was bound and determined that Dave was pursuing the wrong degree and did everything in his power to prevent his graduation. At Christmas, Dave and I sat down at the rickety table in our $85 a month garage apartment and he proclaimed "we're going back to Vancouver, and we're going to THAT church!".
THAT church was Glad Tidings Temple, where my family were attending. They were crazy people, standing and worshipping for 60-70 minutes at a time with their hands in the air, long prayer meetings, double tithing to the church and world missions etc. Dave always left there with a massive headache, but if we didn't go my mother would phone and lambast us for forsaking the gathering of ourselves together.
So we packed up the VW van in Tulsa OK and got back to Canada at midnight on Christmas Eve. We found an upstairs apartment with Conrad Maines, Dave got a job driving a truck, and we went to THAT church. 3 weeks later, the pastor invited us to a meeting to discuss the possibility of starting a church school with Accelerated Christian Education. Coincidentally, I had seen one of the first ACE schools in Tulsa and had come home to tell Dave what an interesting concept I had seen. Hearing the pastor propose the very same thing in Vancouver BC I knew we had been set up by the Almighty.
That was the beginning of our life's work in Christian education almost 40 years ago. Dave taught for 8 years at Temple Academy (which later became Pacific Academy in Surrey BC), we pastored in Gibsons BC for 3 years while founding an ACE school, we both taught in Cornerstone Christian School in Abbotsford while Dave finished his teaching degree, then moved to Portland Oregon where Dave was both Music Pastor and vice principal of Temple Christian school (later City Christian School) for 13 years before returning to Canada for Dave to be the Principal of Highroad Academy, now in his tenth year.
In all of our experiences with Christian schools, Highroad Academy is far and away the best school. Every school says it has a great staff, but this staff is amazing: the collegiality, compassion, creativity - I've never experienced anything like it before. The input from the church leadership is steady and supportive, the academic level is the highest in our area, exceeding all expectations especially when the education and income levels of the participating families are considered. Our school is not a spectacular structure, but it is well built, well maintained and paid for. The financials are solid as a rock and enrollment grew by 10-13% per year until the recession. We have provincial winning sports teams and an extra emphasis on worship in our music program. Everyday I show up, the office staff makes me want to be an educator all over again. Most of the kids in our church attend Highroad which makes up 30-35% of our enrollment. The rest of the students are from 40 different local churches with no bickering or quibbling about it. It's all that and so much more.
However, we are not good at tooting our own horn. We don't advertise, we don't have parent meetings, we haven't had a proper street sign for years (a new one is on the way!), we don't require the parents volunteer or give large sums of money: we just show up each day, love the kids and do our best.
I want this to quit being Chilliwack's best kept secret. I want to shout it from the housetops. I know there are families looking for us - they just don't know who or where we are. This is the school I wished I could have raised my own children in. This is the school every community needs to have on every corner. Schools like these raise leaders that change the world. We are that school.
Now can you see why I'm so excited about this, my Next Big Adventure? I think I have time in my working life for one more big thing that takes years to pull off. Is this it? I think so....
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