Baker View Christian School in Bellingham, Washington, closed its doors three years ago, vowing the closure would be temporary. They held to their commitment.
Since 2018, the BVCS school board faithfully met each month moving capital improvement projects forward and planning for the eventual reopening of the Adventist school. In support of these efforts, the Bellingham Church never stopped budgeting for and paying their monthly subsidy to the school, despite its closure.
On March 14, 2020, the future of Adventist education in Washington state was sent into a perilous tailspin when the spiking COVID-19 infections prompted the governor to close all schools and issue stay-at-home orders.
Private schools across the state nervously locked their doors and scrambled into a forced transition to remote learning. It was a tense and scary time nationwide as the pandemic took hold of everyday life.
However, as so many of school leaders were feeling the weight of uncertainty, the Bellingham Church saw opportunity. Under a provision in the governor’s school closure edict, there was a unique allowance for small curriculum-support camps to form for the purpose of helping students with remote learning needs.
Bellingham Church capitalized on the opportunity by establishing a curricular support camp as a church-based ministry to the community. The church was quickly able to establish a classroom full of paying customers grateful for the academic support.
“Only God could have pulled off the bold vision of a curriculum support camp in Bellingham,” said Ron Schultz, Bellingham Church pastor. “Serving the needs of the community in this way has breathed fresh life into our church family and our presence in Whatcom County.”
As the tight lockdowns of summer and fall faded into a more relaxed winter, the church successfully leveraged the curricular support camp as a bridge to reopen Baker View Christian School. The students and families who had found the loving scholastic support of the Bellingham Church were now eager to solidify their commitments to Adventist education if schooling options were made available to them.
The Washington Conference K–12 board of education voted unanimously to approve the reopening of Baker View Christian School.
“We are praying that God will be glorified as we reopen Baker View Christian School for the training of young people for His glory,” said Phil Nelson, BVCS school board chair.
Since February, the school has gained state approval to operate, invited veteran educator MaryAnn Barrett to be lead teacher and has been readying the newly remodeled building to, once again, welcome students this coming fall.
“God did indeed provide,” Schultz says. “It’s not something we could have seen coming, but He provided.”
The Adventist community in Bellingham formed a small curriculum-support camp to help students with their remote learning needs. This served as a launch pad for reopening their school facility.
Baker View Christian School used their prepandemic closure time to renovate the school facility in preparation for reopening someday — which happened sooner and better than they imagined.
Baker View Christian School in Bellingham is preparing to reopen in after a three-year closure.
Offering a much-appreciated curriculum camp during the pandemic allowed Baker View Christian School an opportunity to reopen its school facility.
MaryAnn Barrett, a veteran educator, led the curriculum camp and now serves as the lead teacher for Baker View Christian School.
The curriculum camp offered in the Baker View Christian School facility allowed students and families in Bellingham to get acquainted with the private school campus.
