As her students began arriving Wednesday for the first day of school, Christina Christian stood outside, greeting each one with a warm embrace. Inside, on the top of each desk, sat a stack of new books.

Welcome to the Bethune Mays Classical Academy, the Qcity’s newest private school and the brainchild of Bishop Claude Alexander, senior pastor of the Park Church.

Housed in the church’s eastside campus (formerly known as the Merchandise Mart), the private, Christian school opened Wednesday with six students – all in the sixth grade. Within three years, Christian said, the goal is to have 60 to 80 students in grades six through eight.

Its curriculum is described as “Christian Classic.”

Like all schools, Bethune Mays will teach science, math, history and language arts. But it also will encourage students to view those subjects through the prism of a Christian faith.

What might be called “social studies” at a secular schools will be known as “humanities” at Bethune Mays. Students will be encouraged to discuss the mental and spiritual state of humankind while also learning about the particulars of an era or culture.

As for the evolution, it will taught but not advocated.

“We will teach it in the sense that our students must be educated,” said Christian, who doubles as teacher and head of school. “We don’t want our students to leave thinking that our beliefs are the only ones out there.”

Etiquette and logic will be taught alongside physical education. And each Friday, students will attend devotion.

For parents Anthony and Bonita Jordan, it was this curriculum – along with the promise of a smaller class size – that persuaded them to remove their daughter, 11-year-old Antoinette, from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.

The Jordans described their daughter as a “quiet spirit” who brings home A’s and B’s.

“You can get lost in a larger classroom,” Anthony Jordan said.

He said he hopes his daughter will receive an education that is more “thought-provoking, not just learning and taking in the facts.”

Christian said her goal at Bethune Mays is to nurture the entire student – mind, body and spirit.

“We get to have the conversations about the hair, about the nails, about the tattoos, how to shake hands and make eye contact,” she said.

As a private school, Bethune Mays – named after nationally famous educators Mary McCloud Bethune and Benjamin Mays -- gets no government funding. Nor must it adhere to state or federal oversight. The school has applied for national accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, a process that’s expected to take three years, Christian said.

A brochure for the school says its curriculum will align with the “N.C. Standard Course of Study.”

The original plan, Christian said, was to open Bethune Mays as a charter school, but given the wait time – North Carolina has capped the number of charter schools at 100 statewide – organizers decided to take the private route.

“The thought was, if we wait, how many students would have fallen through the cracks by then?” said Christian. “How many students would we watch drop out while we’re waiting?”

Christian said she holds a Ph.D. in special education from UNC Charlotte and last taught special education at Smithfield Elementary.

She said her goal at Bethune Mays is to add a seventh-grade class in year two and an eighth-grade class in year three.

The school will focus on the middle grades, she said, because that’s when many students, especially African American males, begin to make academic decisions that eventually lead to dropping out.

Students at Bethune Mays will come from all background. Of the six currently enrolled, she said, some come from wealthy families and some don’t. Some come from two-parent homes and others are being raised by single mothers.

The Park Church is providing matching funding and paid to renovate the school. Additional funding, Christian said, has come from individuals and organization – including a $50,000 gift from Forest Hill Church.

Annual tuition is $11,900, but directors voted the first year to give each student what amounts to a $5,400 scholarship, she said.
***
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that Bathune Mays Classical Academy received no financial support from the Park Church. That error has been corrected in the current version of this story.
 

Sign up for our Weekly Email Newsletter Email: For Email Marketing you can trust

Other Ways to Share Twitter Del.icio.us MySpace

Discussions and Submission Agreement