Wednesday marked the first day of the new private Crestwood Christian Academy, offered by Crestwood Baptist Church. The Monday before, school director and Family Pastor Steve Self and Jane Hart, assistant director, took some time out of their busy schedule to explain how the new school came about.
“Yes, we do start the day after tomorrow …” Hart said, referring to the first day of school for a brand-new class of kindergartners. The academy is starting out with a group of 15 students.
Hart was hired to help Self set up the school, an idea first discussed by a senior pastor back in 2023. Self said after some exploratory research was done on exactly what it would take to run a school, the church decided to move forward with the idea in ‘25. A school board was formed which met for well over a year.
“And then our church has been very gracious to help us …” Self said, with an offering taken during Christmas that was donated for the school. The word was put out about registrations being taken, a kindergarten teacher and aid were hired as well as an enrichment teacher.
“And we hired Ms. Jane in February — she’s been a blessing …”
Hart is a church congregant but also has a long background in education. She retired as an assistant principal in Jefferson County and has 40 years experience in public schools between Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois.
Self said, “We hope to add a grade this year. Our foundation, our vision, our purpose is to provide a Christian education that would be through the lens of God’s word, Biblically."
With the vision of the type of education the school wanted to offer already set, Self said they looked to Hart, who did research on the curriculum, and who to hire.
“When the church was putting out that they were going to start a school, who’s interested in helping — I felt that tug to start praying about it …” Hart said. She said the more she prayed, the more she knew she had to go talk to the pastors about it.
“And that was the best hire, she’s amazing,” Self said.
But Hart said it was an undertaking, and one that required a team. Counting themselves, the school has five staff members.
“The school board helped with the curriculum. They had done some research into it, and I used that information, along with researching other curriculums others had recommended to me …” Hart said. “It was basically a prayerful process — making sure it all connected to our goal of a Christian world view.”
Other than promoting the school at local events, they plan on offering tours later this year to interested families.
Although things felt busy, Self and Hart said they weren’t necessarily nervous about the first day.
“Oh, we’ve already gone over it and over it. We had a back-to-school night last night, and all the parents and kids got to meet, interact with each other …” Hart said. “We went over some things that they should expect, and how to drop them off, to bring their lunches …”
Self said students will go to class in rooms used for Sunday School, as well as have a gymnasium for physical education and an outdoor playground. “There’s a cafeteria area in the fellowship hall, so having all this space already was great to not have that extra cost.”
Hart said the Christmas offering was like “seed money, you could say. We do charge — all our parents pay tuition …” at $7,000 a year, plus a $300 processing fee.
“For this year, that’s their only expense … Because of the gracious donations, we’ve covered all of the supplies they’ll need. The only thing we ask is that they have a backpack and lunchbox.”
As far as how the academy plans to continue getting funding, Hart said there are possibilities for state grants.
“But if you get help from the state, the state will also tell you how they want things run. So most will not go that route. There are some things out there, hopefully, that’s coming down the pipe that will remove that part of it,” she said. “We looked at that and think it may come out in January, where people who donate will get up to $1,500 tax credit of whatever they donate, so that doesn’t technically go through the government.”
When Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of House Bill 1 was overridden earlier this year, the law meant Kentucky could offer a federal tax-credit scholarship program — to go into effect in January of ‘27. The move had been rejected by nearly 65% of voters back in 2024 as an amendment to allow public tax dollars to be used for tuition to private, charter or parochial schools.
To find out more about the church or its academy, visit crestwoodbaptist.org.