WITH ENROLLMENT UP, DEER CREEK ACADEMY READY TO EXPAND

After only three years, the Deer Creek Christian Academy is ready to expand its enrollment into a larger facility.

Administrators have purchased a two-acre site on Route W opposite Kenneth Drive for the school, which was started in Trish LaFoe's home in 1997. LaFoe founded the school because she wanted to expose her children to a broad-based education that would help them develop academically, socially and spiritually.

"Our approach is to allow a whole range of ages to mix and learn from each other. It makes us a community classroom," said LaFoe, the school's business administrator.

Deer Creek Christian Academy operates on an eleven-month calendar. Students attend class between August and June in nine-week sessions, each followed by a three-week vacation. No classes are scheduled during the month of July.

Fifteen students in first through seventh grades are enrolled in the school, along with two preschoolers.

Enrollment could rise to about 30 after classes are moved to the new facility.

"I hate to grow too fast because it's so neat being able to do everything you can do with a small group," LaFoe said.

Smaller classes allow students to go on field trips to such places as Chicago and Kansas City, she said. Students also receive specialized physical education classes at sites away from the school.

Deer Creek students study core subjects and are exposed to foreign languages, art appreciation and music lessons. Christian principles, family values and community service complement the curriculum, which was largely designed by Jackie Brandtner, one of two teachers in the school.

"We think that the curriculum is demanding and advanced," Brandtner said. "It was designed using existing textbooks and anything we could get from publishing companies."

Because of the mixed age groups, students generally study areas that are accelerated for their grade level, although children having difficulty can easily slow their pace so they retain material, Brandtner said.

In addition to regular studies, the students also are given limited assistance and work independently on special projects. One of their most recent projects, construction of a trebuchet, came with a series of questions and no explanation of what a trebuchet was.

"A trebuchet is a medieval catapult," said Laura Brown, 12. "It's wooden, with rods and a counterweight, and a rope sling."

Brown and her classmates used dictionaries, encyclopedias, the Internet and various other sources to learn what a trebuchet was used for and how to build one that works.

Their research resulted in several working trebuchets that were used to launch tomatoes, tennis balls and other small objects.

"If you look at them, every one looks different but they all work," said Brown, whose father teaches math and science classes at the school. "It was really neat making them."

LaFoe said the project was just one example of how students are challenged to think creatively and independently.

"They got to use everything on this project, so they got to apply what they've learned in every aspect of the curriculum," she said. "Lack of creativity stifles kids."

Students said they appreciate the school's uniqueness. "You go at your own pace at this school, and the whole class doesn't have to slow down if someone needs more help," said Nathan Kolda, 12.

Candice Perry, 12, said she wasn't enthusiastic about the school uniforms, but she has realized there were fewer distractions when everyone is dressed similarly.

"It can be good or bad," she said. "Here, everyone is alike, but we also don't lose classtime because someone wants you to look at their new shoes."

Brandtner said she has seen a rise in achievement in students since the school opened. She attributed the achievement to the school's one-room schoolhouse concept and to the students' motivation level.

"We are working with highly motivated students and parents," she said. "We are a return to the best of the one-room schoolhouse, with the added technology that has developed since the 1990s."