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Founder, administrator of Christian academy retiring
Patterson will stay involved with school
Friday, July 10, 2009
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Thirty years after establishing a Christian school in St. Mary's County Sarah Patterson's vision continues to grow even as the educator plans her retirement.
"We needed an independent evangelical Christian school in Southern Maryland for people who have those values and want their children taught that way," said Patterson, administrator of The King's Christian Academy in Callaway.
Three decades ago Patterson and a few others who shared her vision of a non-denominational Christian school in Southern Maryland started teaching a class of seven first-graders at Lexington Park Baptist Church.
"People were a little skeptical at first. It was a very new idea at the time," said Pam Cumming, the first first-grade teacher at the school. "It was a big challenge and it was very exciting."
She praised Patterson for her enthusiasm in starting the school and keeping focused on its mission.
"She was basically my mentor," Cumming said. "She taught me pretty much everything I knew … She was a huge blessing and inspiration to me."
Cumming said the school grew quickly after its first year to serve about 60 children in first through fifth grades and renamed itself Lexington Park Christian School, renting space from the Baptist church. The staff salvaged furniture from an auction and pulled together a collection of used books and other materials.
"People think you can only educate with lots of money and brand new stuff," Cumming said. "That's not always the case, as we showed."
The school continued to grow in numbers and reached out to students in other areas, particularly southern Calvert County.
"We were in the churches," Patterson said. "Before we came here, we were located in four different churches."
By this decade Patterson and the school's staff had raised enough money to build its own facility, which opened just off Route 5 in Callaway in 2004.
"The whole Christian community came together to help us build," Patterson said.
Patterson said there are about 300 students from 61 different churches in the region who now attend The King's Christian Academy
While a student does not have to be Christian to attend, most all of them are, she said.
The school obtained accreditations for kindergarten through 12th grade last December from the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools and the Association of Christian Schools International after a three-year preparation period.
"It was reaffirming to us in many ways, and ultimately stretched our legacy of excellence," Patterson said of the accreditation.
Kevin Fry, who was hired last school year as the school's assistant administrator, will take over Patterson's position as administrator. Fry brought with him missionary experience from Guatemala, where he was the principal of a Christian school.
Plans are in the works to grow the school more. Patterson will stay with the school on a contractual basis to help oversee fundraising as well as a new high school building that would increase the school's overall enrollment to 1,000 students sometime within the next decade.
"I've always had a vision for a private Christian school," she said. "It took a group of committed Christians to do it."
Patterson moved to St. Mary's in the early 1960s with her husband, Mike Patterson, who worked at Patuxent River Naval Air Station and also has helped with the school over the years.
The school has produced about 1,500 graduates since it first opened, she said.
"There is a need for a choice for people," she said.
The school has a Bible class each day for all grades. "We're very focused on Christian character," Patterson said.
Next fall there will be a new learning center opened in a portable building on the campus.
She said students do transfer to and from St. Mary's Ryken High School and other schools in the region, including nearby Little Flower School.
"We're getting to be known" thanks to a new advertising campaign and continued word-of-mouth publicity, she said.
About three-quarters of the students' families are connected to the Navy base, which has proven to have its pluses and minuses as families are transferred in and out of the area.
The school has expanded its science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs and offers Advanced Placement classes through an online service so high school students can potentially earn college credit.
Reflecting on the growth of the school from its original seven students, Patterson said, "It is more than I could imagine ... It's been quite a journey."
