Some Big Announcements

In light of the Central Oregonian article, we thought we’d take the opportunity to share a few big announcements!

We Are Funded!

What does this mean?
Donors have come alongside to help fund the vision of Crook County Christian School. Most importantly, it means that we will be offering a pre-school through 6th grade in-person program regardless of enrollment size! This has enabled us to begin making all our necessary hires prior to classrooms filling up! This is such an amazing blessing!

New Teachers Hired!

We are so excited to announce the hiring of our first teachers. We are excited to welcome:
1. Crystal Wittenberg – Elementary (Kindergarten)
2. Nikki Bennight – Elementary
3. Madison Gish – L.E.A.D. program facilitator/tutor, and specials (art, leadership, etc.)
4. Julia Mapes – Preschool

We are also in interviews and negotiations with several more and are continuing the interview process. We hope to have most of those hires completed by end of June, or early July! If someone you know is interested, have them visit our Careers page.

New Playground Equipment!

We are in the process of procuring a new playground set for our school! This is very exciting, and will be a significant enhancement for our preschool and elementary programs! As we settle on the final set, we will share that here and on our social media.

Afterschool Care & Daycare!

We will be offering our enrolled families access to affordable, Afterschool Care. We plan to offer this program in Fall daily from 3:00pm-6:00pm to help support working families!

We will also start offering daycare as soon as we have the go ahead from licensing. We have an initial meeting with them this month, and we’re excited to offer this option to Crook County families.

Scholarships Are Available!

Another generous donor has provided an initial scholarship fund for need-based scholarships. We will be taking applications in early July, and will then distribute those based on greatest need.

First Assembly of God Board Statement

We want Crook County families to know our primary focus is moving forward and looking ahead! That is why we have prepared the following statement moving forward:

http://crookcountychristian.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Board-Letter.pdf

Last, but not least we want to correct several statements from HDCA in the recent Central Oregonian article.

1. We were not offered a board position on HDCA’s board. That was actually a suggestion we made as one possibility, but the Board Chair stated in an April HDCA board meeting that would be a conflict of interest given our status as landlords.
   
2. While it is true that several community members generously helped during construction, the school buildings were all financed and built by the church from the beginning. The primary donor and construction team member are still part of our congregation.
   
3. HDCA did not exist until 2015. Prior to that, Crook County Christian School (CCCS) operated continuously from 1994 through 2015 as a ministry extension of First Assembly of God to the community before helping seed the beginning of HDCA. HDCA came into being in 2015, and we gifted/seeded them both cash and assets and a low, temporary lease of $1000/month to help aid in relocation. Over the past 7 years, our congregation has covered the lease most months and we have provided estimated rent credits between $750k and $950k during that time based on market rents from 2015-22. We have been generous supporters of HDCA through the years, and we continue to wish them well.

We have met with several families who had questions or concerns, and continue to be willing to do so. We love the families of Crook County, we love the community, we love God, and we love the Truth. Truth matters. While we deeply regret the continued misleading and false statements from HDCA, our focus remains getting ready for Fall classes. We continue to wish HDCA well in all their future endeavors, and we are strong proponents of school choice. We believe multiple schools with differing focuses and vision can exist to help meet the growing and diverse needs of families in our community and region.