Education
I am sure that was the question asked by many folks that frequently or even occasionally traveled 40th street or Ottawa Ave this summer. One could not miss the volume and the scope of the construction project this summer – sometimes seeing huge portions of the high school no longer in place and then to watch it return with a very different shape and look. It was quite a mess from one end of the campus to the other for sometime and then it started around the first of August to come together – first in new spaces that become better defined and then with magnificent landscaping and parking lots and finishing touches that seemed to appear out of nowhere – early on it seemed to change by the week – then by the day and near the end it was changing by the hour. But the question is a good one – What is going on at Holland Christian, since we are about a lot more than buildings and glass and steel and bricks and trees and fields and courts and flowers and parking lots. What is going on is that a good portion of “where” we are doing are work has changed during the last few years – quite a bit of the “who” is doing the work has also changed in the past decade – significant changes have been made in “how” we are doing our work – but what we are doing has not changed from the first day that Holland Christian Schools opened their doors over 100 years ago. The “where” changes are very apparent – Rose Park, the High School, Pine Ridge and both middle schools as well as South Side all have gone through some very significant changes in structure, infrastructure and function in the past few years. We think that with a few more steps at the high school we can put the need for major building projects behind us for a few generations. That is remarkable news for any school system – we know that maintenance and renovations are never really finished but we are getting close once the high school project as it has been designed would be completed. Regarding the “who” is doing the work at HC also has seen some very significant changes in the past decade with almost an entire generation of teachers retiring and have been replaced by a remarkable group of dedicated teachers and staff members that have joined the HC family. In addition the staffing required to support education today is quite different than in generations past. Holland Christian over the years has been blessed to have one of the most capable, passionate, and caring staffs that you will find in any school around the country. Holland Christian is known as a good place to work and to grow professionally. The “how” aspect of our work has changed most remarkably. Technology continues to play an ever growing role in our instruction, foreign languages, once reserved for high school now have been brought into the pre-school and elementary classrooms, with some students being taught entirely in Spanish in our immersion program. We have added programming that will help identify students that require some assistance with reading, and after they have been identified we have multiple interventions to put in place at a much earlier age so that they can be more successful as they move through the grades. We have added after school and summer programs that has been well received by not only HC families and students but by many other families in the community. This fall we are launching some classes that will be offered exclusively for home schooling students and they will then also be joining some of our after school programs. This program is just at the beginning stages and has great potential. We have begun programs that will be impacting our pre school planning as well as connecting with the other local school districts in a program called Ready to Learn – determining how prepared children are for kindergarten and what factors will be most influential in advancing their readiness to learn. In spite of all of these changes and proposed changes and certainly changes that will be coming in the future you need to know that the guiding principles – the purpose – the mission of Holland Christian has not changed. We will continue with all of our ability to assist every student to fully develop their God given talents. We will be very aware of how we are being good stewards of the creation and the many resources that God gives to us – individually and as an institution. And we will continue to prayerfully and actively discern God’s plan for this school – determining where we are going and how we are going to get there. We will continue to provide an outstanding educational experience that is based on Scripture and teaches young men and women how to think not what to think. It will be our challenge to guide each child in developing a worldview or a perspective on life and learning that is imbedded in every aspect of their lives. In short, we might be changing the building and the landscaping around the building – both figuratively and literally – but we are not changing the foundation. Isn’t it interesting that is exactly what we did with the high school this summer? The school certainly changed but the foundation of the building never moved – you never quite know where the next life lesson will emerge, do you?So now you too are able to answer the question: What is going on at Holland Christian?