{"id":21315,"date":"2025-07-23T22:39:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T04:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/lighthouse-christian-academy-will-mark-30th-anniversary-with-new-school-year\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:05:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:05:45","slug":"lighthouse-christian-academy-will-mark-30th-anniversary-with-new-school-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/lighthouse-christian-academy-will-mark-30th-anniversary-with-new-school-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Lighthouse Christian Academy will mark 30th anniversary with new school year"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Lighthouse
Lighthouse Christian Academy is undergoing registration for the 2025-26 school year. While some grades are already full, there is still capacity in kindergarten and fifth through 12th grades. (Lighthouse Christian Academy Facebook)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Lighthouse Christian Academy, a private school operated by Lighthouse Baptist Church in Cortez, is marking its 30th anniversary as it prepares for the 2025-26 school year. The school, which was founded in 1995, will welcome students back on Aug. 20, a start date that is slightly later than area public schools.<\/p>\n

This schedule will still allow students to complete their first semester, including exams, before Christmas break.<\/p>\n

About 60 students have enrolled so far, with seven teachers and a principal, Susan Payne, who has served in the school since 2020.<\/p>\n

LCA emphasizes a Bible-centered education, weaving Scripture throughout its curriculum and requiring students to memorize Bible verses. The school uses the Abeka curriculum, employing a hybrid instructional model. Elementary classes blend in-person teaching with video-based learning, while junior high and high school rely primarily on video instruction.<\/p>\n

Bible classes, however, are always taught in person. Weekly Thursday chapel services engage all students with games, songs and a Bible lesson.<\/p>\n

Students have won notable awards over the years in the Veterans of Foreign Wars writing competition.<\/p>\n

A highlight this summer, as the school prepares for the upcoming school year, is the school\u2019s facility upgrades, funded by a record-breaking color walk fundraiser in May that raised $37,000, surpassing a previous record fundraiser that raised $10,000.<\/p>\n

A large portion of the funds are dedicated to classroom improvements, such as new laminate flooring in a room on the upstairs level of the school. The other portion supports a major playground renovation, including a new play area, additional swings, a tire tower, a pyramid climbing structure, a permanent covering for the outdoor eating area and upgraded basketball backboards.<\/p>\n

Completion is targeted for the end of July.<\/p>\n

Open registration is ongoing, but enrollment is selective to align with the school\u2019s philosophy of being an extension of a Bible-focused home. The process involves an enrollment meeting to ensure shared values, encapsulated in the motto \u201cEducating for Eternity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want our school to be an extension of the home ministry,\u201d Lighthouse Baptist Church Associate Pastor Reece Alvarez told The<\/em> Journal<\/em>. \u201cWe don\u2019t want the student to come into the school and it be a foreign environment from what the home looks like. So, we try to get parents who have a priority of teaching the Bible and loving God in the home, and honestly, those two things kind of take care of everything else. We don\u2019t have a laundry list of requirements. Really, after the first meeting, we can tell if it\u2019ll be a good fit and if our values align. We\u2019re not looking to deter parents. We\u2019re not looking for reasons to say no, but if there\u2019s a glaring difference in philosophy, then we just try to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit to lead us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Class sizes are limited. Right now, first through fourth grades are full, but there are still some openings for kindergarten and fifth through 12th grade.<\/p>\n

For information or to schedule a tour, contact the school at (970) 565-9302 or email academy@lbcortez.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

still openings for registration in kindergarten and fifth through 12th grades<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,155,28,60,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-21315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-education","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21315"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77258,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21315\/revisions\/77258"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21315"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=21315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}