Master’s Christian School, located next to Cascade Bible Church on Highway 20 in Twisp, held their annual open house for prospective parents on April 29.
The school has grown from 13 to 50 students under the leadership of Drew Simmons, principal and science teacher.
“I want to prepare kids to live in a biblical world perspective. The second goal is to prepare them for whatever career, college, or outside high school path they want to take,” said Simmons.
The preschool through 12th grade school has several secular children. The school is nondenominational. While there is no faith requirement for students, teachers must sign a statement of faith stating that Jesus is the Christ.
“We model our behavior and service to others through Christ’s example. We talk about that at the beginning of our school day,” said Simmons.
Mornings at the Master’s School begin at 8 am with a meeting in the students’ homerooms followed by chapel from 8:30 to 9 am.
Simmons was in the public school system for 22 years, including 10 years in the Methow Valley School District. He has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education, which also covers junior high school, and is certified in reading instruction, which includes helping children with reading difficulties. He has a master’s degree in curriculum and supervision with an emphasis on technology. It is an administrative role in designing and supervising the scope and sequence of curriculum, which has helped him lead the Master’s school.
Master’s has a literature-based curriculum. Stories and books are used to understand concepts. Early grades focus on reading fluency and comprehension. Middle and upper grades continue developing comprehension, in addition to inference, comparing and contrasting, and demonstrating one’s own understanding.
Simmons says reading “helps bring human connection to content, especially science because kids tend to shy away from deeper science things. With the addition of stories and [stories about] other real people that had these experiences and experiments they shared with the world, and the world took them in different directions, I can tie a narrative to how we got to where we are in understanding.”
Simmons said two things separate Master’s from other schools in the valley.
“We’re Christ-centered. We focus on that as a character trait, which I couldn’t do in the public system,” he said.
The second differentiator is grade promotion.
” We don’t necessarily promote kids because of their age. We make sure they have the skills they need before they move on to the next level, for the most part. There are some variations and some exceptions to that. We try to provide tools and experiences for the kids to be successful. Really, our focus is making sure they’re ready for the next step,” he said.
“The Master’s Christian School is a great quality education. We really focus in on developing not only the academic side of kids but primarily the spiritual side. We want parents to be part of that and involved in that process of helping to educate their kids and ultimately, they have a choice whether to follow the spiritual side of it.”
Parents are asked to volunteer 20 hours per school year. Volunteer opportunities are separated into three categories: weekly, school year projects, and summer projects.
Simmons does not shy away from controversial topics. The science table during the open house included the periodic table, a microscope, a binder on human anatomy, a dissection tool set, a biography on Marie Curie, and the Smithsonian’s series, The Story of Science. Simmons believes in tackling secular science theories, like the theory of evolution, head on.
“We can’t be afraid of it because kids are going to come across it,” he said.
For more information, please contact the Master’s Christian School at (509) 997-4060 or email [email protected].
Thanks for covering this, I was sad to miss it.
I’m sure they can still provide you with information. Their contact is (509) 997-4060 or email [email protected].