THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 3, 1995 TAG: 9503010233
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 11 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY PATRICIA HUANG, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines
ARNELLA DANIELS' dream of a private Christian school began 10 years ago with six students meeting in a garage.
Today, Daniels Christian School has nearly 200 students and about two dozen teachers.
The school, one of several small, area Christian academies housed in local churches, serves more than 100 children from kindergarten to seventh grade and nearly as many preschoolers.
On one recent morning, Daniels maneuvered around the tiny principal's office in St. Paul's United Methodist Church off Providence Road, where the school is housed.
It is here that Daniels and her husband, Anthony, have run their school for seven years. Their enrollment has grown by word of mouth, they said, and they've attracted a waiting list of more than 150 students.
``The Lord placed upon my heart to start a Christian school,'' Daniels said. ``So we converted our garage into a nursery. . . . The next year we had 20 students.''
If the school has a homelike, family atmosphere, it may be because two of Daniels' five children attend classes there, and a third works as a receptionist. Daniels is the principal, and her husband is the school administrator.
St. Paul's United Methodist Church at Dunbarton Drive and Providence Road is the third church in which the school has been housed, said Anthony Daniels. It outgrew its first two locations. Each year, he said, one more grade level is added.
The Danielses said their goal is to run three schools. But for now, their biggest concern is finding a facility to house the school, which has no cafeteria, no gymnasium and no library.
The growth of the school mirrors that of private Christian schools everywhere, according to the Association of Christian Schools International. Daniels' school is seeking accreditation through the association.
``Our membership over the last two years has grown by about 25 percent,'' said Steve Camp, an administrative assistant of the association at its regional office in Colorado Springs, Colo. The organization has about 3,400 member schools, including colleges.
One of the top five reasons why parents enroll their children in Christian schools, administrators said, is concern with ``the heavy emphasis on outcome-based education in the local public school.''
At the Daniels School, administrators said that parents like the low cost of tuition, small classes and structure.
Every morning at 8 o'clock, the students, dressed in blue-and-white uniforms, say The Lord's Prayer and recite pledges to the American flag, the Christian flag and the Bible.
Students of the predominantly black school then read a passage from the Bible and sing the black national anthem, ``Lift Every Voice and Sing.''
``Public schools don't have prayer anymore, and prayer is very important,'' said Ernest Young, a parent who came to take his sick daughter home. ``And the children get a lot of attention.''
Young, a South Norfolk resident, said he likes the ease with which parents, students and administrators can communicate in the small Christian setting.
Shawn Eure, the school's teacher of African-American cultural studies, said her preschooler and other students are encouraged to take pride in themselves.
``When I was in school we had prayer and I can tell you, things were different,'' Eure said. ``We had more discipline, and we didn't have metal detectors.''
But the issue of prayer only scratches the surface, Camp said. ``Lack of prayer in school is just a symptom of what the public schools face,'' he said. ``Parents want teaching that goes beyond the academic. Parents want basic morals and values taught. They don't feel they're being consistently applied at public schools.''
Melissa Cervantes, 8, was enjoying a strawberry-and-vanilla ice cream bar at lunch time Wednesday. The former Centerville Elementary School student eats lunch at her desk, as all the students do, because there is no cafeteria.
``I get more time here . . . to do my work,'' the third-grader said. She likes her teacher and her friends and everything down to the blue plaid skirt of her uniform. MEMO: [For a related story, see page 10 of The Clipper for this date.]
ILLUSTRATION: Dierra Bailey enjoys some time on the playground during physical
education class.
KEYWORDS: CHRISTIAN SCHOOL by CNB