Daphne Sobaski is pictured with her American history research poster. Daphne is a student at the new Southeastern Christian School in Grace Family Church. (Photo courtesy of Southeastern Christian School)

OLLIE – Southeastern Christian School in rural Ollie has completed its first year of teaching students in grades K-6.

The private school is located inside Grace Family Church, on Highway 78 between Ollie and Martinsburg. In its inaugural year, the school had 12 students, and that enrollment is expected to more than double this fall. Trent Steinhart, the associate minister at Grace Family Church who also teaches part-time at the school, said 24 students have already signed up for next year, and the school is hoping to get 30. Students enrolling in a private school have until June 30 to apply for the state’s Students First Education Savings Account, a voucher for $7,635.

The school has two fulltime teachers, Trent’s wife Tessa Steinhart and Devon Batterson, who just completed her first year of teaching. Tessa has 15 years of experience teaching and Trent has about 13, both having taught in the Washington school district and others such as North Polk and Tri-County.

Devon and Tessa divide the teaching load by having Devon specialize in math while Tessa focuses on reading and writing. Trent describes the classes as “non-traditional,” and the teachers encourage the students to work at their own pace.

“We promote students’ gifts and talents by allowing them to work ahead where they have the ability,” he said.

The church’s chapel is turned into a classroom Monday through Friday. Trent said it’s just like the one-room country schools of yesteryear. In fact, during a field trip to the Fairfield Public Library, the students researched the history of one-room schools.

Trent said the idea to start a school inside the church came from God. The church’s pastors, Dar and Shelley Eckley, had been looking into starting a school for the past six years. Last year, the Eckleys met with the Steinharts and other parents to see if the time was right to start a school. Tessa researched the topic and learned about other new schools that had sprouted up in recent years. They felt they could do the same thing at Grace Family Church, and decided to give it a shot.

Southeastern Christian School began as a nonaccredited private school, and later in the school year it obtained provisional accreditation, which lasts three years.

“As far as Iowa is concerned, we’re able to do anything an accredited school can do,” Trent said.

Tessa said she loves giving her students hands-on, real-world activities like planting vegetables and woodworking.

“In pre-K, we learned how to wash dishes, how to hammer a nail and how to use a screwdriver,” Tessa said. “They fixed a door at the church with me.”

The kids go on field trips once a month, and these have included going to the Richland Veterinary Clinic to see an X-Ray device, to a fossil dig outside Oskaloosa, to Libertyville Savings Bank in Fairfield and to the University of Iowa Museum of Natural History in Iowa City. Guests have also visited the school, such as law enforcement officers who talked about their job, and someone who taught the students CPR.

Tessa, Trent and Devon are all certified teachers, and they expect Trent may take on more responsibilities this coming year because the school will expand to seventh and eighth grades. This past year, the school drew students from the Pekin, Fairfield and Sigourney school districts, and next year it will have two coming from Van Buren.

Tessa said another important pillar of the school is that they teach from a Christian point of view.

“We teach about the young earth, and more from a Biblical perspective,” Tessa said. “We do teach both the worldly perspective and the young earth. We have chapel every day, and we teach scriptures, too.”

The students use a Christian Homeschool Curriculum called Master Books, and the kids can read their own books if they wish.

“We do talk freely about Jesus, which is really important for us,” Tessa said. “You don’t have to be a Christian to come here, but we want families to understand students will receive a Christian education because we teach from a Biblical perspective.”