6/17/11

Westminster Christian Academy------------ from the helicopter!


 "Westminster Christian Academy is located on a beautiful 30-acre campus in Creve Coeur, Missouri, which is in the heart of the St. Louis metropolitan area. The outdoor athletic facilities include a soccer field, football field, softball field, baseball field, and five tennis courts.
Including the campus expansion that was completed in 2000, our facilities cover more than 150,000 square feet. Our campus features a 25-yard indoor pool, two gymnasiums, a library, a cafeteria, a student commons, four computer labs, and six science labs.
Westminster Christian Academy will move to the school's new campus in Town & Country Summer 2011."

"In the mid 1970s, several St. Louis families from the Reformed Presbyterian Church recognized the need for a distinctly Christian junior/senior high school that integrated faith and learning. Led by Dr. George Knight III, a professor at Covenant Seminary, a school board was constituted in September 1975, armed with the mandate to establish Westminster Christian Academy. Dr. Knight's leadership and passion helped define a vision and philosophy that have endured throughout Westminster's history. The founding Board established the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms as the doctrinal base for the school and used the integrated bylaws provided by the National Union of Christian Schools (NUCS) to guide development of the school's bylaws. The official bylaws were approved by the Westminster Christian Academy Association and incorporated into the State of Missouri in September 1975. Westminster became a member of the National Union of Christian Schools in 1975, which established Westminster as a viable Christian school in the Reformed Christian school tradition. In 1982, Westminster was approved as an accredited member of the Independent Schools Association of the Central States (ISACS), an association of respected Christian secondary schools in America.

Westminster Christian Academy's first home was in rented classrooms at Missouri Baptist College. This venue not only provided necessary classroom space, but also offered access to well-equipped laboratories, a gymnasium, and other facilities rarely available to a small secondary school. The first-year curriculum included German, band, art and music. In April 1976, Mr. Nolan Vander Ark was hired as Westminster's first principal and Mrs. Evelyn Downs assumed the position of head teacher. The Board tasked the two to secure a teaching staff and open Westminster's doors in the fall of that year. Mrs. Downs later became principal.
 Throughout the following months, the fledgling school prayed faithfully, interviewed families, enrolled students, partitioned rooms, and purchased equipment, books and furniture, all with less than $10,000 in the bank. The school's vision was realized on September 7, 1976, when Dr. George Knight III addressed the students and faculty at an opening day chapel service."

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