Editor’s Note:
Included below are excerpts from a letter we received from one of our school customers that was directed to our President, Beth TeGrotenhuis.

Dear Beth:

In your introductory letter of AOP’s latest catalog you wrote: “Our purpose at AOP is to make your Christian school a success!” I am writing to attest to that remark.

As a new school (having previously limited our work to summer day camp and year-round preschool and kindergarten levels), we searched through many, many educational materials. Some were simply outdated, others too denominationally rigid, and most simply of a lower level of excellence than which we could accept. We knew God was challenging us to develop a school for the children in our communities which would far surpass the knowledge base of our public systems, and even of the private schools in our region. We also had to make it very affordable, since our target communities are from the poorest corner of the poorest county in our state. After reading more catalogs than I care to remember, I contacted AOP.

Mr. Casey Hamilton came to visit, and the rest – as they say – is history! Casey answered questions, explained possibilities and left with us confirmed in our choice. From there it was simply a matter of finding the finances, not a small task as a “start-up” school with no funding base. It was so encouraging knowing that folks from AOP were praying alongside of us in this mission.

Now let me tell you about the “hope” Switched-On Schoolhouse (SOS) offers students.

* 13-year-old boy – By the end of his last year (7th grade), this boy had been deemed “not probable for success.” The school told his parents to send him to the local tech school, learn how to “swing a hammer,” and keep him on high doses of medications. After receiving his report card, he asked if I thought he could do more in life than use a hammer. I asked what he had in mind. “I have always wanted to teach.”

* 12-year-old girl – “I don’t care about school. Learning is too hard and I’m too stupid,” was her first comment to me. Two weeks into the work, she said: “A’s are pretty, aren’t they?” Again, parents are amazed and finding “new hope” for their children.

* Nine-year-old boy – In his 3rd year (last year) the school told his mom and dad that his ADD is off the charts, so, “we are basically suggesting that (along with medication and counseling) you hope for it to calm down when he is older.” His mother told me they could not get him to “sit at his desk” for more than 5 minutes at school. He sat for 3 hours straight his first day at the computer at New Hope Academy!

Yes, SOS is so handy for teachers, it gives us so much extra time when we don’t have to keep the records by hand, do all the lesson planning and grading…but the real blessing is the look on the faces of the students who believed they could not learn, who agreed with the unspoken suggestions of educators that they were doomed to be losers in life; the hope in the eyes of parents who had almost given up, and the excitement of the teachers who had struggled in other schools with limited options in both curriculum and support.

Thank you for the quality of your materials. Thank you for the encouragement and prayers of everyone at AOP. Thank you for the quality of your employees. Thank you for giving us tools to support the name of our school: New Hope Academy.

Sincerely,
Rev. Colleen N. Pearl, Principal
New Hope Academy
East Killingly, CT