Auburn Adventist Academy (AAA) is back on solid ground after five years of struggling with declining enrollment and financial challenges.
Washington Conference executive committee prayed about possible solutions for several years before voting in January 2015 to close the dorms and form a day academy if the academy could not provide an acceptable plan for reversing its decline by December 2015. In March, a plan was presented and accepted that would allow AAA four years to grow back to sustainability if it could meet growth and funding milestones.
The VISION FOR GROWTH plan creates and funds a new academy department for growth and development. This new department focuses on communication, recruiting, marketing, work and industry opportunities, fundraising, and alumni development. Most importantly, this is being driven by a revival of community support for Adventist education.
Since launching the plan in April, the community has responded with an outpouring of support in time, talent and money. More inspiring yet has been to watch the community actively seek out kindergarten through 12th-grade students who are not part of Adventist education. The acceptance of the growth plan has provided hope to our constituency. This is our VISION FOR GROWTH!
Implementing the vision for growth included the AAA board redefining the academy’s mission and vision and hiring John Soulé, a principal with a passion for boarding academies and growing students.
The growth and development team reached out to parents and students convicting them of the necessity of participation in Adventist Christian education. The team presented the plan to more than 40 churches and followed up with 20 in-depth church board meetings creating the foundation for a four-year support network that will continue to grow.
With all of this energy combined with God’s blessing, I am elated to report that AAA has a freshmen class of 60, and 20 former public school students are attending. Dorm enrollment is up 50 percent, the school opened with 233 students, the budget is balanced for the first time in several years, and the four-year Growth and Development Plan is ahead of schedule and under budget. We praise God for His goodness and answering many prayers!
Now is not the right time to declare victory because God is continuing to call us to a higher level of excellence. We need you to pray about joining this journey. Join in praying for students and staff. Help us recruit students, grow the scholarship fund, and improve the campus.
Working together, with the Holy Spirit’s blessing, we are seeking to nurture a thriving campus to positively influence the lives of students for eternity.
Read Auburn’s Growth and Development Plan and learn how you can be involved.
Dorm enrollment at Auburn Adventist Academy is up 50 percent this year.
John Freedman, Washington Conference president, writes about how God is blessing the conference's boarding school.
