Silver Creek Adventist open to educate

Summer ended and learning started when 34 students went back to classes Monday at Silver Creek Adventist School.

The school on Jamestown Road was built nearly five years ago. It includes a gymnasium, classrooms, library, art room and office.

Principal Wanda Beck said, "We are a very small school, but we have almost doubled in size since the beginning of last year when we had 18 students."

With growth comes an opportunity to expand educational services.

"We are starting a ninth grade, which is a first for us in many years," Beck said. Its curriculum includes health and physical education, English I, earth science, Algebra I and computer applications plus Bible study.

The school has three teachers for three multi-age classrooms. Kim Nicholson teaches kindergarten through second grade; Heidi Kneller, third through sixth grades; and Wanda Beck, seventh through ninth grades.

Kneller is new to the staff but brings six years of teaching experience to the school.

"I like the relationships between the children in a multi-grade classroom," she said. "They help each other."

The tuition-based Christian school offers a safe environment, a low student-teacher ratio and a Bible-based curriculum. The Bible is taught in every grade.

"The curriculum we use is an approved, Christian, Bible-based curriculum. We get our math books from Saxon and the literature is taught more with Christian morals," Beck said.

Hayley, a student in Kneller's class, said, "I love learning about Jesus, and we read the Bible every day. We write in our journals to answer questions about the Bible."

"We teach according to the student's natural cycle of learning and we will teach to all learning styles in every lesson," Beck said.

"We have students with special needs, and we do accept students with special needs on an individual case by case. We see if we can meet the needs of the child," Beck said.

Students who don't fit into the regular classroom due to academic needs can be served, as well as those with gifted needs, she said.

Students take standard achievement tests. The Adventist Accreditation Association, whose standards are in line with those of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, accredits Silver Creek. AAA will evaluate the school this year.

"Due to this evaluation we have taken on some new projects, including our school newspaper and completion of our art room," Beck said.

Silver Creek offers a band program. An introduction to music presents basic musical concepts to students in K-2. Students begin band in the third grade.

"We have a band teacher who comes from Hendersonville one day a week," Beck said.

Nicholson plays flute and teaches music one day a week.

"We have a beginners band and an advanced band. Once the students master (an) instrument they move into the advanced band," Nicholson said.

Beck said the school also offers a drama club, a puppet ministry, a student association and gymnastics.

"For the most part we try to have these as part of the school day, but some may have to meet after school," she said.

The school day is 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

There is no after-school program.

"If we have need for an after- school program, we can get that going," Beck said. "We need at least five students in order to start it."

Students bring their lunches, except on Friday when the school provides a hot meal.

The school conducts field trips and several students are in Wisconsin this week.

"We do feel students learn so much through travel," Beck said.

Silver Creek has a basic uniform dress code: cotton twill pants and polo shirts.

The school began as an elementary boarding school with a farm and dairy in 1921, one year after Frank C. Port purchased the land.

Still on the same property, Silver Creek Adventist School continues as a ministry of the Morganton Seventh-Day Adventist Church.

The school is one of 6,000 SDA educational institutions worldwide, making it part of the largest unified Protestant system of education in the world.

Beck said Silver Creek is accepting new students. Application forms are online at www.silvercreekadventistschool.org. She said they also welcome visits from parents interested in enrolling a child.