There’s a question in my neck of the woods that catches many people off guard. When meeting someone for the first time, locals are notorious for replacing, “Hi, how are you?” with “Where did you go to high school?” (much to the confusion of those who aren’t from the area). It is known as the St. Louis question and, given the history of the city, is often used to gauge a person’s faith, socio-economic status, and corresponding neighborhood. It’s clear around these parts: your school’s name sends a message.
A few years ago, if you asked the graduates of our school where they went to high school, you would not have received a consistent answer. Our school didn’t have just one name—we had multiple. Over the 40-year history of our school, we’ve been known as Living Word, Christian High School (despite being EE-12), and Christian School District (despite not being a district).
It wasn’t just our graduates who were confused: from prospective families to the local media, no one knew who we were. If our school’s name sent a message, the only thing that was clear was that we were confused.
Worse still, this uncertainty wasn’t just the story we were telling; this was the reality we were living. Our school was disjointed and divided. There was no direction in decision making around admissions, programming, or hiring practices. We had known for some time that certain leases were cost prohibitive, but no decisions were made to address this problem. Our accrediting agency put us on notice that if concerns weren’t addressed soon, we may forfeit the endorsement.
“When meeting someone for the first time, locals are notorious for replacing, “Hi, how are you?” with “Where did you go to high school?””
In many ways, these were the least of our worries. In three years, enrollment declined 30%. Our financial situation was dire: cash flow was negative, and the only way to balance the budget was on the backs of our faculty who didn’t receive pay raises for three years or who were let go. By January 2021, trust in leadership among families and faculty was almost nonexistent. Over the next two months we faced major division in our community around COVID-19 policies and were the lead story on local news following an incident on campus that exposed racial tensions.
As we enter 2025, it’s hard to fathom the progress we’ve made in four years. By every measure, we are not the school we were. Enrollment is growing, our finances are robust, and confidence has been restored. This past year, we went through a successful name and branding change, bringing clarity to our community and consistency in the marketplace. For the first time in a long time, we are proud of the message we are sending.
Sharing the story with all who care to listen, I am frequently asked, how did that turnaround happen? It was evident God was not finished with his school here, so how did God work in our community? At the risk of oversimplifying a complex journey, here are three things that stand out.
Obey the Mission
Without careful attention, any organization, faith based or not, can move away from its stated mission. It was clear that our decision-making around admissions, programming, and hiring practices had shifted over time. The loss of trust in our community all stemmed from this drift. As a leadership team, we recommitted ourselves to the unchanging mission of our school, identified a narrow set of missional priorities, and executed those diligently.
One priority centered around our school’s identity: we developed some key values and an ideal student profile. We are working to embed this language in our community and see it embodied in our graduates. We also made the courageous facility decisions needed to operate sustainably as a school.
Build A Team
As we practiced obedience, we richly experienced God’s blessing. This blessing was most evident in the quality of families, faculty, and especially leaders God led to our school. We really had no business in attracting some of these individuals. The most crucial attribute they all brought? Alignment with the mission. There is nothing better than working with a team of leaders all rowing in the same direction.
The leadership was ably empowered by our school board, who steadfastly adopted a governance framework, allowing my team to make day-to-day decisions. This is where the relationship between the Head of School and Board Chair is so crucial. It takes time to cultivate, but it is worth the investment. In four years, I’ve had three different Board Chairs, each one bringing a unique perspective to the position, but all aligned in their commitment to governance and unwavering in their support of their one employee.
Ask for Help
In late 2020, I stumbled upon this CACE Blog. Not only was it clear these folks knew what they were on about as they discussed Christian education, but I also realized, as a new Head of School, that I desperately needed help with strategic planning.
Through a somewhat providential connection, in May 2021, CACE began to assist us in the development of a strategic roadmap for our school. After six months of discussion and prayer, the roadmap became our guiding document for decision-making and the measure by which we held ourselves accountable.
Wanting to get our name right and our brand clear, we also engaged the services of an outside marketing agency in a year-long process of name ideation, logo design, and website development. Having been through an in-house rebrand less than five years ago, we had learned our limitations and knew that we needed to lean on an outside party for guidance. In both of these instances, we found that the confidence derived from these professional services was critical to making significant, strategic decisions.
Send a Message
As we look ahead, our goal remains to seek God and honor him in all we do. Part of the reason we went with the name Veritas was not only to communicate our desire to educate in truth, but also to hold ourselves accountable to the author of Truth, who has done mighty things in and through our community.
So the next time one of our graduates answers the St. Louis question, my hope is not only that they know the name of our school, but they can confidently say, “I went to Veritas. God is at work there.” What better message could we send?
