Students will start the 2024–25 school year at First Preparatory Christian Academy with the school getting a fresh re-accreditation.

FPCA went through the accrediting process this spring with Cognia and earned a five-year accreditation from SACS, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Cognia is a private, non-profit firm that guides schools through the accreditation process.

“We’re pretty proud of that,” said FPCA headmaster Gladwin Harper. “It gives credence to what we’re trying to do in education. To be accredited gives a credence to the objective of the education, our pursuit of excellence. We’re a preparatory school, so we’re trying to make kids college ready.”

FPCA, with students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, begins its school year August 5, with an anticipated enrollment of 313. Its open house will be held August 2.

Harper said the school wants its graduates to be “best prepared when they leave us, wherever they enroll in their next phase of their educational experience.”

“We have a lot of electives here,” he said. “We have a music program in our lower school. A lot of institutions don’t offer that. We offer Spanish at the lower school level. We’re teaching kids as early as pre-K to have bilingual abilities, particularly in the society and culture we’re all living in now.”

Included in the curriculum for the high school students is a minimum of 60 hours of community service.

“We really want to tap in and promote those students being engaged in service projects,” Harper said. “We want them to be involved in the community, the life of the school, the life of the family and the life of the community, to potentially become better citizens for Liberty County and wherever they reside.”

Harper, who is new to FPCA, also said he was struck by the athletics offerings for its students.

“We offer intramural programs for kids in the lower school, which are feeder programs for your middle and high school,” he said. “Coach Shane Smith and David Linderman coordinate an expansive sports program. There are a lot of things kids can tap into here at FPCA.”

One of the challenges, Harper acknowledged, is recruiting faculty members, a hurdle these days for both public and private schools, he pointed out. While the school has plans for growth, its limited in its footprint.

The school, which started as an elementary school under the auspices of the First Presbyterian Church in 1975, will mark 50 years, and Harper said the school appreciates the relationship it’s had with the church over the years.

“Growth is our goal,” he said. “We would love to build our own gymnasium. We’ve expanded as much as we can here.”

While most of the students come from Liberty County, there are students whose families live in adjoining counties, and even some from as far as Jesup and Screven.

“We’re a viable option for about five or six counties in the area,” Harper said.