THE PLANS HAVE CHANGED!

Celebrating the opening of the Ernest and Beverly Shortridge Elementary Classroom Building, Northwest Christian sets its sights on a new cafeteria/gymnasium.

"For years, the online parent survey has pointed us towards the need for an indoor cafeteria," explains NCS superintendent Geoff Brown. "And, for years, that target has eluded us. But, I earnestly believe that is what God is pointing our community towards right now. And, I believe that, in the same way that He provided for the Shortridge building, He's providing for a cafeteria." Through Jog-a-thon, the annual fundraising dinner, the sacrificial generosity of many Crusaders, and the major support of a single donor with a vision for the mission of Northwest Christian School, the brand new $5M elementary classroom building came together in four years. "With an in-hand and very recent cost estimate for a cafeteria that is less than that, I believe that God is showing us that this can happen again with a new cafeteria and a second gym."

Please take a moment to read some of the details below and to watch this special announcement video.

Geoff continues: "A cafeteria building will provide more than an air-conditioned, indoor eating space. The space will also serve as a complementary gym to the Don Sanderson Gymnasium. It would allow for indoor physical education classes. At the same time, we could move some or all of our off-campus afterschool athletic practices to campus, increasing convenience for students and parents."

"As we look forward, we really have reason to celebrate and thank the Lord. After Fall Break, twelve classrooms of students are moving into a new building! The exciting thing," insists Geoff, "is that, as we celebrate the completion and opening of the Ernest and Beverly Shortridge Classroom Building, we have come to concretely understand how a cafeteria is possible financially. Over the next few weeks, I am going to be sharing that with our community. But, today, I want to focus on celebration of the Shortridge building and call our community to prayer, allowing each to also focus on how God may be calling each family to step in and help."

"Literally, as our families are reading this newsletter and watching this video, right now we have teams that are moving our teachers and students into a building that is beautiful and perfect for that to which God has called us. I cannot wait," enthuses Geoff, "for our students and families to return after Fall Break, to walk these halls, to see these classrooms, and to understand what God can do on our campus if we trust Him."

BUILD THERE: What is 'The Sutton Project'?

"Fifteen years ago," explains assistant superintendent Samantha Maszton, "God moved on this campus, through our students, to meet the needs of other students on other campuses. It started with J.B. Sutton Elementary in the Isaac School District, a community where need is real and tangible. At that point, God called our student leaders to put together 125 Thanksgiving meal boxes for Sutton's most needy families. Since that time, God has continued to move, growing that vision in the hearts of our students, strengthening them, emboldening them, and transforming them into difference makers. The Sutton Project has grown to include multiple schools, hundreds of hours of student volunteer hours, and thousands of dollars which further the hope of the gospel in our city and in the hearts and minds of our students. The Sutton Project is the campus-wide, all-school cornerstone of Northwest Christian's Pursuing His Purpose missions learning program."

"The Sutton Project is also a pillar within our 'Build Here, Build There' campus improvement project," explains superintendent Geoff Brown. "We have identified five different missions-learning partners--Sutton is once of these--to which we 'tithe' from the funds that BHBT generates. Literally, as we 'Build Here', we are also 'Building There', building into these other ministries that are, in turn, building into the lives and hearts of our students."

More info on The Sutton Project will be coming home in the coming days. Until then, please watch this video and visit this site for more details.

High School Serves the City. On Wednesday, October 2nd, Northwest Christian High School enjoyed its first "Serve the City" day, a vital aspect of Northwest Christian's Pursuing His Purpose missions learning program. The nearly 500 high schoolers (97% participation, including NCS High School Flex students!) spread out across the city, serving for the day within ministries that included Feed My Starving Children, St. Vincent de Paul, Reigning Grace Ranch, St. Mary's Food Bank, Choices Pregnancy Centers, Deep Within Rehab, Foundation for the Blind, Habitat for Humanity, Hope Women's Center, Project Cure, and many others.

Building blocks for life. This year's Red Letter Challenge had a twist in that it was Lego-themed. Having launched on August 14, and now in week 8, each of the weekly prizes and competitions is themed around these super-popular little bricks. What is the Red Letter Challenge? The RLC is effectively a Bible reading plan that Mr. Brown annually puts before the students. The students are encouraged to read through the four gospels, one chapter per day, over three months. As part of the fun, above, each week students are watching as an unknown scene from the gospels comes together via Legos. In the video below, as part of one of the competitions, students built and submitted their own favorite gospel scene from the their readings. This video reveals the top 10 out of the more than 100 that were submitted.

On Tuesday, October 1st, Northwest Community Church served as a wonderful venue for the first Northwest Christian choir concert of the 2024/2025 school year. Click here to enjoy the event!

Band big at barnstormer! On Friday, September 27th, Northwest Christian's varsity football went up against Eastmark High School in an epic clash of the titans. The Crusaders battled and pulled down the nailbiter win, 16-7. But, it required the energy of a huge band! The evening included the entire secondary band program--150 band members strong!

A little help from our friends. So that we can model the priority of the local church, Northwest Christian leans into its relationships with the nearly 200 different churches represented by students, families, and faculty. Pictured above, the student worship team from CCV North Phoenix led worship in elementary chapel this past week. Other churches that have so far supported efforts on campus this year include: CityView Church, Phoenix Bible Church, Desert Breeze Community Church, North Phoenix Church, and others!

Mr. Parrott goes to Washington D.C. This month, Northwest Christian high school student Zeke Parrott travelled to D.C. with a group of curriculum developers from NCS Online. The group is working with the Colson Center for Christian Worldview and American Christian Tours to put the finishing touches on the NCS Online Government course which will also serve as a Frameworks course. Frameworks courses are available for credit to high school students within public schools, charter schools, home school, and private school. To date, all Frameworks courses have been for elective credit. But, NCS Online Government will represent the first core course credit.

New frontiers and strategies in learning. Though much has justifiably been made of the new Ernest and Beverly Shortridge Elementary Classroom Building this fall, Northwest Christian is also drawing attention to its expanding 1:1 technology program, the school's growing digital learning profile, and a bright future for NCS Plus. As of this writing, every on-ground NCS student has a dedicated iPad that is part of their unique learning process. Within the secondary program, these are student-issued while in the elementary they remain within the classroom. These iPads are prepared with student safety and digital citizenship as a priority and, most amazing of all, they open the door for academic history to be made: a personalized workflow to increase responsibility and academic utility. Simply stated, this means that a student's learning experience is increasingly being customized to meet their unique needs, exploit their strengths, and increase learning enjoyment through a fuller understanding of student interests.

Parenting trouble no more! (Well, that might be a bit optimistic.) This past spring, Northwest Christian announced its partnership with Christian Family Care to open the many parenting resources available through the Family Care Learning library to the Crusader community of families, free of charge. These online courses are immediately available once NCS parents have completed the "NCS Parent University: Foundations of a Biblical Worldview" course that is required as part of the re-enrollment process. For more information, please follow this link.

Trusted Truth Transforms... It's the tagline for Northwest Christian School's foray into the realm of online education, the enrollment for which has blown up this summer. A project four years in the making, Northwest Christian School Online is not the typical online academy. Most online schools rebrand third-party digital curriculum. Instead, Northwest Christian School Online is wholly and organically developed and fully facilitated by Northwest Christian faculty. As well, the online experience is available at roughly half-the-price of other Christian online schools, a price that can be easily covered by an ESA for Arizona-based families. (To survey the price points of online Christian schools relative to NCS Online, please click here.) The most exciting aspect of Northwest Christian School Online is that some aspect of the program--Frameworks, NCS Plus, NCS Flex, and NCS Online--will ultimately impact the learning of every NCS student--whether that student is online or on-the-ground. To survey the different aspects of and opportunities within NCS Online, please follow this link. To learn more about NCS Flex specifically, please click the image below.