By Brett Milam
Editor
A new Christian school is starting in the fall at Springvale Baptist Church in Goshen Township.
The church, located at 1700 Clark Drive, will begin classes for the Springvale Christian Academy after Labor Day.
Destanie Cousino, sole teacher and school administrator, said it was God’s plan. Cousino has been a teacher for five years, and previously taught at Milford Christian Academy.
The idea for the school began with a project as part of Destanie’s master’s degree in educational leadership. The project required creating a handbook for a fictional school.
“I do have leadership abilities, and I do enjoy being in charge, but at the same time, I don’t want to overstep my boundaries. I’m a pretty reluctant leader,” she said.
But it wasn’t until Destanie began working on that fictional handbook that she realized it was the direction she needed to go. With each new prayer, she felt more strongly about going ahead with the project.
Destanie and her husband, Chad, went to Springvale’s Pastor Joe Childress with the idea in the fall of 2018. Childress has been the pastor there for more than 20 years.
Chad had been going to the church for about five years, and had become a youth pastor. Then he met Destanie, who started attending the church about two years ago.
Stepping up and getting involved in the church made all the difference. Destanie began teaching Sunday school. That started with three kids, and now she’s up to nine kids.
So the congregation knew them, and knew how well they worked with the kids and teens.
“I love those little ones to pieces, they are just the sweetest things,” Destanie said.
Trust built up, and Destanie said the congregation could recognize that this was her calling in life.
And, as it turned out, Childress was praying for more than 10 years to have a Christian school out of the church.
“So that was just even more confirmation that, ‘Oh, this is definitely the direction we need to go, then,'” Destanie said.
The next step was to introduce the idea at the church’s business meeting.
“We trust God to provide, and he always has,” Destanie said.
The church approved the idea, with one dissenting vote. Destanie explained that some had concerns about children going down the steps, or with the Cousinos being a newlywed couple, what if Destanie gets pregnant during the school year?
There are steps that lead to an additional classroom in the church.
Destanie said she is actually due for a baby during the middle of the school year.
“I said, you know, we can cross that bridge when we come to it. We’ll have somebody who can step into the classroom and feel that space, if it’s needed,” Destanie said.
Destanie said a change they made at the church was to incorporate doors that lock automatically as soon as they’re closed for kids’ safety.
“Safety was one of my top priorities,” she said.
After that process, Destanie worked with the Ohio Department of Education to be listed as a non-chartered, non-tax-supported school. That means they receive no money from the government.
Academic standards still need to be met. Destanie said the curriculum they’ve chosen holds students to a standard. The curriculum is Abeka, published in affiliation through the Pensacola Christian College, which has been around since 1972, teaching biblical values with Christian schools and homeschools.
“It really pushes the kids to think outside the box, and beyond their years beyond what it typically expected of kids,” Destanie said. “It can be made so flexible to encompass everybody.”
Destanie further explained that the Bible is the “core root” for everything, so that’ll be integrated in the curriculum, too. She said she spends a lot of her spare time reading the Bible and trying to learn more about God.
“Every morning we’ll start with 30 minutes of Bible,” she said.
An example of how God would be incorporated into the curriculum is language, which Destanie said was the “gift God gave us.”
“We have an actual beautiful, fluid language that just has so many words — I’m an English [language arts] person so this is kind of my baby — we have such specific words to really amplify what you’re trying to say or the message you’re trying to get across. So we teach language from the perspective that it’s God’s gift and we need to learn to use that gift well, and use it wisely,” she said.
There’s also character training in terms of, “How does God feel when we tell a lie or when we’re unkind to our friends?”
Math, reading, language are the predominant subjects, with afternoon classes devoted to music and art classes.
“So we just try to point them back to God and the Bible in every aspect of the day, whatever classes are being taught,” Destanie said.
The school year officially begins on Sept. 5 and will end by Memorial Day. The school day will be 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
“At that age level, most of their learning is actually done by lunchtime,” she said.
That’s why they are offering a half-day kindergarten option.
So far, there are two kids enrolled, who also attend the church. Those two kids are in the first grade. Destanie hopes to increase enrollment to 12.
But Destanie said they are interested in reaching the whole community, and giving them more options; as in, those who aren’t satisfied with the public school for whatever reason.
“And do it for those kids who would otherwise not have an opportunity to get a private education, especially a private Christian education,” she said.
Destanie said she’s doing it as low-cost as possible. For a full-time student, it would cost $2,500 a year.
Half-day kindergarten would be $1,900.
Destanie explained also that there’s a book fee, which varies depending on need and the year, that will act as the enrollment fee. That way they don’t end up buying $500 worth of books, and the person backs out.
The dream would be that one day they have such classroom capacity that they have to build a brand new building, Destanie said. She also wants to do more collaboration with the Milford Christian Academy, including the missionary work the academy does.
But for now, it’s still pretty surreal, and hasn’t hit Destanie yet.
“There’s definitely a lot of excitement. I will say, with it being a first year school, I knew that enrollment was gonna kind of be on the lower side. There are days where it gets a little discouraging,” she said. “But you just have to look past that and say, ‘You know what, if it makes a difference in the lives of these two, it’s still worth it.'”
And that’s when the joy and excitement all come flooding back in.
“I’m just excited to get the year started, and to see where God’s gonna take us from here.”
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Editor’s Note: The print version of this article in the Aug. 4 edition of The Sunday Sun incorrectly noted that the school time was 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.; it’s 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. In addition, the article said that the two students enrolled were in kindergarten and the first grade, respectively; both are first-graders. The Sun apologizes for the errors.