Gaston Christian celebrates first 100 days in Shelby

Gaston Christian School’s Shelby campus recently celebrated its first 100 days of school.

The Shelby location is an extension of the main campus located in Gastonia, which opened in 1980.

“We had a lot of families driving back and forth to Gaston County,” said Victoria Ahearn, principal of the Shelby campus.

They decided there was a need in the community and opened the school to its first 52 students in the fall of 2022.

She said the school has a three-year lease with Elizabeth Baptist Church, but they are looking for a permanent space now.

Ahearn said the school is considering purchasing land and building a school or using an existing building. She said they have some conversations about using one of the schools recently shut down by Cleveland County Schools, but there are no concrete plans yet.

“We may not be here for three years,” she said of the Elizabeth location.

Ahearn said she worked in public schools for 14 years before being hired by Gaston Christian.

The school currently has students enrolled in pre-K through fourth grade and will add fifth grade next year.

There are 12 teachers so far and as the school grows, they plan to add more.

Ahearn said the goal is to have 100 students enrolled next year.

The main campus has over 1,000 students enrolled and offers grades pre-K through 12th.

“They started out in a church and eventually got their own building,” Ahearn said.

Class sizes at the school are small and don’t go over 20 students.

“It’s definitely faster paced,” she said.

She said because of the smaller class sizes and more individual attention, they use an advanced curriculum and are around a year ahead of their peers in public school.

“We don’t use common core standards,” Ahearn said. “We use scope and sequence.”

She said they use a variety of Christian curriculum, including Abeka, Purposeful Design and Bob Jones.

“We also do Bible every day, and we still do cursive,” Ahearn said.

Students have PE twice a week, and the school offers art and music and has a library and computer lab.

The kids can engage in sports at the main campus.

Ahearn described the school as being tight-knit and family-oriented.

In one classroom, the kids collected 100 stuffed animals for 100 days and used them in a math problem. The kids were also working on learning their address and planned to send a Valentine to their parents.

Ahearn said the school was started when five pastors of the biggest churches in the community came together and discussed starting a Christian school in the county. They decided to partner with Gaston Christian School since it is well established and create a Shelby campus instead of starting from scratch.

Following chapel, which is broadcast on Instagram so parents can watch, they have lunch.

Students can bring a packed lunch, or parents can pay to have a lunch delivered from Fatz, Chick-Fil-A, Toscanos or Subway.

Ahearn said each week, the school collects an offering, and the money goes to an area of need in the community, such as the One More, One Less Project which supports foster families, the Abuse Prevention Council and others.

She said this teaches the children to help those who are less fortunate.

The school has an application process, which, depending on the grade, includes admissions testing, recommendations from teachers and pastors, and a family interview.

The school admits students with academic achievement in the average or above average range, who are age-appropriate developmently, socially and emotionally, and “amenable to instruction and correction.”

Parents must support the school’s statement of faith.

Tuition ranges from $5,214 a year for preschool to $11,108 for high school.

Ahearn said there are options for families who can’t afford the tuition.

She said the school accepts the NC Opportunity Scholarship which covers part or all of tuition for those who qualify.

“Our school also offers some financial aid as well,” she said.

For more information on the Shelby campus, visit Gaston Christian’s website at gastonchristian.org/shelby-campus.

Rebecca Sitzes can be reached at rsitzes@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Shelby Star: Gaston Christian celebrates first 100 days in Shelby