The Christian School
From James Donahue’s Journal
I was active in getting the Sandusky Christian School launched. I remember attending City Council meetings on behalf of the church, getting zoning approval for a school on property given to the church at the southeast corner of the community. The church conducted a fund-raising campaign to raise our first buildings and hire the staff we needed.
The school opened in 1973. The first buildings were two used Quonset huts that had been used as emergency classrooms at other schools during construction of new buildings. They were elevated metal buildings that offered a single classroom and adjoining restrooms and storage space. We brought the buildings to the grounds, had the utilities hooked up, hired teachers for the first two grades, and opened our doors. That was in 1973. A final school building was constructed about 10 years later, but then the school closed its doors in 2022 because of poor enrollment. That was long after we left the church and moved out of the community.
The first enrollment was small, with most of the children coming from families within our church and some of the area fundamental Baptist and Bible churches. Jennifer was among the first students to be enrolled. We put her into the school even though Doris and I had our rift with the Sandusky Baptist Church and were no longer attending church there. I think that may have been why she was treated poorly by the teaching staff and the church pastor.
A school building was raised and classes added through at least the sixth if not the eighth grades. There were only about two teachers so the classes were run much like a country school operated, with students from several classes in the same room. There was a heavy emphasis on Bible in that school. Jennifer came out of that situation with the ability to quote a lot of scripture from heart. She, like her father, learned to know the enemy very well.
When she moved into the public school, Jennifer was singled out by her teachers as not having a proper basic education and she had to struggle hard for grades. By then we had moved to Caro so she didn’t have the stigma of Aaron, Ayn and Susan’s high school legacy at Sandusky to deal with. Fortunately Jennifer was a brilliant child and managed to rise above the chaos created by the Christian school and churches.
At the time I worked to get the school established I believed that a private parochial education would grant a better education to children. After watching what happened at that school, however, I realized that I was quite wrong. This is all I have to say about this subject.
From James Donahue’s Journal
I was active in getting the Sandusky Christian School launched. I remember attending City Council meetings on behalf of the church, getting zoning approval for a school on property given to the church at the southeast corner of the community. The church conducted a fund-raising campaign to raise our first buildings and hire the staff we needed.
The school opened in 1973. The first buildings were two used Quonset huts that had been used as emergency classrooms at other schools during construction of new buildings. They were elevated metal buildings that offered a single classroom and adjoining restrooms and storage space. We brought the buildings to the grounds, had the utilities hooked up, hired teachers for the first two grades, and opened our doors. That was in 1973. A final school building was constructed about 10 years later, but then the school closed its doors in 2022 because of poor enrollment. That was long after we left the church and moved out of the community.
The first enrollment was small, with most of the children coming from families within our church and some of the area fundamental Baptist and Bible churches. Jennifer was among the first students to be enrolled. We put her into the school even though Doris and I had our rift with the Sandusky Baptist Church and were no longer attending church there. I think that may have been why she was treated poorly by the teaching staff and the church pastor.
A school building was raised and classes added through at least the sixth if not the eighth grades. There were only about two teachers so the classes were run much like a country school operated, with students from several classes in the same room. There was a heavy emphasis on Bible in that school. Jennifer came out of that situation with the ability to quote a lot of scripture from heart. She, like her father, learned to know the enemy very well.
When she moved into the public school, Jennifer was singled out by her teachers as not having a proper basic education and she had to struggle hard for grades. By then we had moved to Caro so she didn’t have the stigma of Aaron, Ayn and Susan’s high school legacy at Sandusky to deal with. Fortunately Jennifer was a brilliant child and managed to rise above the chaos created by the Christian school and churches.
At the time I worked to get the school established I believed that a private parochial education would grant a better education to children. After watching what happened at that school, however, I realized that I was quite wrong. This is all I have to say about this subject.