The WCA Leadership Team and Board of Directors kicked off the 2018-2019 school year re-enrollment season last night in the annual State of the School address. Board Director Doug Kinder opened the night with a moving opening prayer after which Rob Campbell, Director of Administration, outlined the specifics of the limited tuition and fees changes that will come into effect next school year, including the ability of all families to re-enroll early from February 1st through February 28th and lock-in their 2018-2019 tuition rates at the levels currently in place for 2017-2018.

Following Rob was Head of School Dr. David Breslin, who took to the podium to review all the amazing things that God has done in our school for the past year: an increase in students from 141 when he arrived, up to 186 today, including significant gains in the school year itself, a testament to the fact that families are hearing about the substantial strides that are being made by WCA every year, and are willing to transfer here mid-year to become a part of our upward trajectory. Dave celebrated the start of our first ever organized Camp Eagle Summer Camp, the arrival of a new Athletic Director in Kraig Ware, and our new Student Life Director Donna Walls, who orchestrated the phenomenal roll-out of over 8 school clubs since she arrived last August, including a middle school Lego Robotics team who she coached to a third-place finish out of 16 teams in the regional championships in Richmond. There were so many moments and events that have helped us grow and display to Williamsburg that we are quickly cementing our goal of being the finest college prep program in the Historic Triangle with an emphasis on educating the whole child in a full activity environment.

Dr. Breslin also laid out some of the plans and schedule for 2018-2019, including new mission fields and trips, and new retreat locations; new elective courses available in both Middle and Upper School in Keyboarding and Computer Science, Honors Spanish 4, Upper School Physical Education, Driver’s Education, dedicated school day Drama electives, and even Oceanography; and probably most significantly, the substantial reworking of the lower school curriculum.  For the past year and a half, over 100 curriculum models from top Christian, secular independent, and public schools have been researched, studied, and compared to the current WCA curriculum. The results of this mammoth undertaking is a new, more ordinated and fluid flowing curriculum that, we believe, will be a new model that will help bring WCA’s academic program to the forefront of Christian education not only in the Historic Triangle, but also statewide. (to see a summary of the new curriculum program and what is new and different, click here).

At the conclusion of Dr. Breslin’s review, 1st Grade teacher Kathy Watson read aloud our school’s ‘Portrait of a Graduate‘, a document that the Leadership team and Development office has created to demonstrate what parents who are considering enrolling their children at WCA can expect us to be continually striving towards in the education and development of their students.

That reading set the stage to see the product of our educational model, two living portraits of a WCA graduate, alums Kelly Reed and Kyle Pfeifer. Both Kyle (WCA ’12) and Kelly (WCA ’13) gave very inspirational and impassioned speeches, highlighting the many ways in which WCA shaped them throughout their years here, carried them forward through the spiritually challenging college environment, and how the seeds of faith planted at WCA now guide their interactions as young professionals and spouses. We thank them for their words and the blessing of their time shared with us to testify to the deep and lasting value of a WCA education.

If you were unable to attend the State of the School address, all re-enrollment info is available online, as is the framework of the new lower school curriculum.