Canyon Christian Academy to open next August
ALAMOGORDO – Alamogordo will be getting a new private school in 2019.
Canyon Christian Academy, a Seventh-day Adventist Church operation, held a rather soggy groundbreaking Thursday afternoon.
“We’re planting shovels to initiate a new school that will lead children to Biblical knowledge and provide for them in their educational growth in a safe and nurturing environment,” Alamogordo Seventh-day Adventist Church education committee chairman Jesse Cone said.
The school is set to open in August 2019 in time for the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year. Then school will be pre-kindergarten through eighth grade and will be tuition-based.
The church had a school on Florida Avenue which closed seven years ago. It is a pre-school now, Pastor Chuck Workman said.
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The teachers at Canyon Christian Academy will be National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, or NCATE, certified.
Canyon Christian Academy is committed to providing a Christ-centered, Bible-based education that nurtures the individuality of the student within a climate of academic excellence, states the school’s mission statement.
There are currently four Adventist schools in New Mexico and seven in the Texico Conference of Seventh-day Adventist Churches which covers west Texas and most of New Mexico.
One key Adventist principle is that no one should be pressured into church membership, but join willingly as they choose, according to a Canyon Christian Academy fact sheet.
Children of Adventist parents become baptized members only when they are old enough to make the decision consciously and responsibly, the fact sheet shows.
The school will be located on church grounds to the west of the main building at 1000 S. Canyon Road.
The $1.3 million school is funded partially by the church plus a $1 million loan. It is expected to be completed by August 2019.
For more information, call Alamogordo's Seventh-day Adventist Church at 434-9400.