Who We Are

Our Purpose

St. Stephen’s Academy exists to support families and churches by providing an academically excellent classical Christian education that cultivates knowledge, wisdom, eloquence, and godly character and equips students with the tools of learning that will last a lifetime.

Our Vision

St. Stephen’s Academy has become one of the leading PreK-12 classical Christian schools in the Northwest. Our curriculum is designed to produce life-long learners who rightly understand and enjoy the world in which they live, engage contemporary culture from a Christian worldview, and communicate effectively, graciously, and truthfully. To accomplish this we follow a time-tested classical liberal arts curriculum organized around the Trivium (Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric), which generally correspond to a child’s natural stages of intellectual development.

St. Stephen’s employs and develops highly effective teachers and staff who are committed to the classical model and who strive to pass on their love of learning to their students. Our implementation of the classical Christian model of education has been rigorously examined and affirmed by our accrediting body, the Association of Classical Christian Schools (ACCS). Our model of education consistently produces students who demonstrate knowledge, wisdom, eloquence, and virtue in their homes, churches, vocations, and communities for a cost far below that charged by other independent schools in our area.

Our Values

As a classical Christian school, we believe and teach the following:

• that God has revealed Himself in the created world and, more fully, in the Bible, which reveals God’s plan to redeem the world through the person and work of Jesus Christ
• that God calls every person to know, love, and enjoy Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength
• that Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, left the glory of heaven to serve, even in the shame and pain of death on a cross, which he endured for our salvation
• that God calls us to follow Christ’s example of self-sacrifice and humble service.

Therefore, we work to provide an environment where each child is given the opportunity to develop his or her understanding and affections within the framework of a biblical worldview. The school recognizes its theological foundation in the Reformed tradition, as articulated in the Westminster Confession of Faith.

The practical application of these values includes:

• cultivating a faculty and staff that is COMMITTED (devoted to Christ and faithful to His calling), RELATIONAL (warmly engaged and willing to help), and HUMBLE (always ready to admit our need and seek to learn from others)
• maintaining an orderly, disciplined environment that allows each child to fully engage the learning process
• providing opportunities for wholesome play
• maintaining good relations with the community in which the school is placed
• acknowledging God’s sovereign grace in all aspects of the school and modeling this grace in the school community and beyond
• handling disagreements and discipline biblically
• managing the resources that God has given us in a fiscally responsible manner
• fostering a strong community that prioritizes face-to-face interaction, training teachers and selecting materials that best reflect our classical and Christian commitments, and building a Christ-centered school culture of DEVOTION (loving the right things), SACRIFICE (looking out for the interests of others), and WONDER (living in joyful amazement of God and His world).