Lynwood Christian Academy celebrates growth, plans for building expansion

Lynwood Christian Academy, a private non-denominational Christian school opened in August 2020 in Cape Girardeau. Since then, the school has experienced immense growth, with plans for building a new facility.

Benjamin Rhodes, head of school, sat down for an interview to discuss the school’s future, academic excellence, mission and recent updates.

Pastor Rhodes, it seems Vision Night was a huge success this year! For those who may not know, what is Vision Night?

Vision Night is our annual open house and celebration for what God has done, is doing and will do at Lynwood Christian Academy (LCA). It’s also the first opportunity for current and new families to apply/enroll for the coming school year. Prospective families can see classrooms, meet teachers, fill out an application and tour the school.

This year, our Vision Night was the highest attended in our history! We had many new families, current families and those interested in LCA come and see how God has blessed our school.

Ben Rhodes, Head of School at Lynwood Christian AcademySubmitted

What are some of the exciting things happening at LCA right now?

Honestly, our school's growth has been very exciting over the last several years. In 2020, we had a little over 40 students. For the 2023-24 school year, we have 215 students spanning from our Foot Prints Preschool to Academy eighth grade.

We’re also in the middle of a new building campaign called Generations. We presented our building plans on Vision Night, which included a high school gym, science lab, art studio, new classrooms, cafeteria, offices and a new entrance. With the new building addition, our school would be able to grow not just numerically, but in activities, sports and mission opportunities.

There’s certainly a lot going on at your school and the future looks bright. Why do you believe LCA has grown so much in such a short amount of time?

Our vision is to partner with parents to train champions for Christ. We believe parents make the greatest impact on their children and our goal is to walk with them through the journey of raising a child. We also believe each child is created differently and each child may need something slightly different in their educational journey.

Our optimal class sizes of 16 or fewer students allow teachers to know their students well and pull the best out of each child. We also have some of the greatest faculty in all of Southeast Missouri. All of our teachers could be teaching at another educational institution, but we’re grateful they’re here at LCA! Finally, we never want our families to feel like a number. Our goal is to make each family feel like they belong to a family who truly cares about them and their child.

LCA is not an independent school, correct?

That’s correct. We’re a ministry of Lynwood Baptist Church, though, we’re still a non-denominational christian school. However, our partnership with LBC is important for our school. The current facility for our school is housed in the church, which has been a huge blessing.

LBC’s vision, to engage all people to experience Christ and equip them for life lines up with the vision of LCA as well. Our mission is to engage students by partnering with their families to experience excellent academic instruction through a Biblical worldview and equip them to be champions for Christ. Engage, experience, equip.

Lynwood Church is very mission-focused, and that’s also a core value of LCA, as well. From packing shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child to partnering with Eagle Christian Academy in Kenya, we desire to see the world impacted for Christ. We also engage in missions locally by packing food baskets for families in need and participating in Lynwood Church’s annual City2City community outreach opportunities.

Finally, similar to a church service on a Sunday morning, we have a chapel service every Friday morning for our students which includes singing worship songs and hearing a message from the Bible.

As a school, I’m sure you focus heavily on academics. Can you tell us about your academic program?

Absolutely! As a new school, there are difficulties in showing the validity of your academic success. We knew it would be important to have a third party verify our academic excellence. That’s why we partnered with the Association of Christian Schools International, the largest private Christian accrediting agency in the world, to seek accreditation.

In April of 2023, ACSI sent a team to verify our school's claim of excellence in academics and administration. After their visit, we received the highest accreditation available with a six-year term.

Mrs. Eva Mitchell, who we hired this past year to serve as our Director of Curriculum and Instruction, played a huge role in helping us through the accreditation process. She does an outstanding job supporting and training our faculty on best practices of instruction and pedagogy. She also coordinates our NWEA Maps standardized testing three times a year to provide data comparing us against national norms, private norms and private Christian norms. Our school overwhelmingly tests above national, private and Christian school norms. That's all because of our fantastic faculty and staff.

Parents often look for extracurricular activities, such as clubs and sports. What does LCA offer?

We currently offer several areas for students to get involved outside of the normal classroom activities. For sports, we have cross-country, basketball, volleyball and cheerleading. As our school continues to grow and add facilities, we plan to make more sports available based on student interest. We also offer non-athletic activities such as scholar bowl, speech and word, music concerts, plays and several electives for Junior High students.

If families want to find out more about the school or tour LCA, how do they get in contact?

There are many ways to contact us for interested families. They can always call our office, (573) 335-8333, or visit our website, www.lynwood.academy.

On our website, families can see more information about our faculty and staff, check out our calendar and events, as well as fill out an inquiry form or even apply for the 2024-25 school year. Our Director of Admissions and Enrollment, Hallie Akin, will help new families move through the application and enrollment process.

Pastor Rhodes, thank you for your time today. Anything else you would like the readers to know about LCA?

First off, thank you for the interview! Second, I'm just grateful to serve at such an incredible school like LCA. The Lord has blessed us so much, and I truly believe the best is yet to come!

To learn more or apply for Lynwood Christian Academy, visit www.lynwood.academy.