Part of a ‘movement’: Christian academy starts first year in North

North Christian Academy, located at 405 Stafford Ave. in North, is housed in the educational building of the First Baptist Church of North.

Staff includes two principals, who also serve as teachers, two full-time teachers and a part-time math teacher.

The Rev. Sean McElrath, pastor, said the church began discussing the idea of developing a private Christian academy about nine months ago.

“We began to ask the question: What could our church do to serve this community and to serve this community well? You begin to ask people in North, and you ask them what North needs the most. Typically, especially with younger families, the response that we were getting is that they were just not happy with the educational options here in North or surrounding areas,” McElrath said.

“So we began, just with those things in mind, to ask the question of what it might look like to serve this community through that way, starting a private Christian school. It really began as a dream and a prayer, but as the staff began to kind of walk around the church campus, God really just began to open up the vision to us,” the pastor said.

The school serves K-4 through eighth grade, with plans to expand to high school grades later.

The K-4 program is a half-day running from 8 to 11:45 a.m. Kindergarten through eighth grade run a full school day from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. After-school care is also available.

“Each year we want to hold on to the students that we have. So we’re going to be adding a grade each year until we’re finally up to grade 12,” McElrath said.

A gym for physical education, brand new playground equipment and a fellowship hall for lunchtime are among the academy’s amenities.

“Our educational building is laid out just beautifully to facilitate a small Christian school. So from there, we just began to commit it to prayer. We formed a focus group, and the focus group worked together to present a more solidified vision to the church,” the pastor said.

“The church was very affirming of that. I can’t think of one person who didn’t think that this could be a good thing for the Town of North, he said.

He said what separates the academy from other schools is its focus on Christ.

“Our staff are a group of people who are really first and foremost devoted Christians who want to not just give these children a world-class education, but that want to show them Jesus and teach them his gospel,” McElrath said.

The pastor continued, “What we’re seeing already is a group of students where some of them have some needs. We want to be the kind of school that just doesn’t pass them along, but ensures that they understand the different subject matters and have competency of those subjects matters before they move on to the next thing. So we want to make sure we’re serving our students well academically and spiritually.”

The academy uses the comprehensive, biblically-based Abeka curriculum and is a member of the South Carolina Association of Christian Schools, or SCACS.

“SCACS will oversee us for three years. Upon completion of that, then we’ll be accredited,” McElrath said.

He said the community’s response to the new academy has been good.

“We tempered our expectation knowing that North is small … and there’s a lot of poverty-stricken families here. But even with that in mind, we’ve had lots of excitement. We were able to enroll 29 children this first year. So we feel like we’re off to a pretty good start,” the pastor said.

Tuition is $3,400 per year.

“We want to ensure that we keep the cost as low as we possibly can so that this might actually be an option for the average family. We’re continuing our incentives for families with multiple children. For each additional child, they get a $500 discount. So each subsequent child would be at a cost of $2,900 annually,” the pastor said.

“We offer a 10-month payment plan. They can split that $3,400 over 10 months, which works out to $340 per month for that child,” he said.

McElrath said the academy is still enrolling students.

“Enrollment right now is just going to be based upon the student needs and the class size. … So it will just kind of be on a case-by-case situation,” he said.

The pastor said he anticipates growth, and that there is room for expansion in the church’s education building.

He considers the development of the Christian academy part of a “movement.”

“It’s kind of interesting. This is sort of becoming a bit of a movement. A lot of churches who have means are beginning to ask the same questions we have. I think folks are just kind of looking at what’s going on in culture and thinking this might could help. This can’t do anything but help,” he said.

For more information, individuals can contact the North Christian Academy by phone at 803-247-2711, email at northchristianacademy23@gmail.com or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090399019632.