St Paul Christian Academy

While St. Paul provides a hit or miss education. It all depends on which teacher your child gets for which class. In 2012, they promoted a second grade teacher to teach fourth grade math who wasn't competent to teach it. When the entire class failed a geometry unit, the teacher blamed it on the children not understand that they were going to have to study harder. MANY parents were upset and met with the headmaster Ken Cheeseman about it. Instead of moving the teacher back to second grade where he was clearly better serving the students, he kept the teacher in the fourth grade math slot the next year. Since math is built on a foundation, our child continues to struggle with math which has eroded self-confidence. Not to mention that they make sure children are getting As and Bs by inflating the grade with "participation" grades. For example, a student in fourth grade can have a an average grade of 70 on all of their coursework. But FIFTY PERCENT (50%) of the grade for the quarter is a 100 for participation. So when averaging a 70 with 100, the child comes home with an 85 for the quarter. A child who averages 85 on all of the actual course work ends up receiving a 93 for the quarter. So they seem to care more about keeping the parents happy with the report cards so they will continue to pay tuition.

While they do teach the children a very strong foundation in God's love, they don't always practice it themselves as they can be very judgmental. Definitely be ware if you are dealing with a divorce situation. They will completely acknowledge both parents when they are fundraising and asking for money, but when it comes to any other issue - they only deal with the parent signing the contract and completely disrespect the legal joint custody. And when issues are brought to their attention, the basic response it - sorry - that's just how it works here. In the current sixth grade class, they lost an entire classroom of children who would rather move on to Brentwood Academy than finish their last year at St. Paul. I think the fact that over 30 parents chose to transfer their children speaks volumes. I would look at all of the options very closely before choosing St. Paul if you are thinking of sending your child there.