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St. Paul's Considers High School: Only 28 Percent of Students Are Episcopalian

Posted on: Wednesday, 11 January 2006, 15:00 CST

By Serena Lei, The Bellingham Herald, Bellingham, Wash.

Jan. 11--St. Paul's Episcopal School in Bellingham is gauging public interest in adding a high school to the 33-year-old private school.

The idea has been a dream for years, but administration started seriously considering the project in October, said Stephanie Sadler, head of the school.

Since St. Paul's runs from preschool through eighth grade, students must move on to public schools or choose from the few private high schools in the area.

Lynden Christian Schools has the largest private high school in Whatcom County.

The project is still in the early stages, Sadler said, but she expects a new school may cost about $5 million to $7 million and would be built near the current school. Committees already are exploring curriculum, design and cost.

A new high school may be two to five years off, but Sarah Nuckolls still hopes it will open in time to benefit her seventh-grade son, Logan Kerr.

"He's flourishing where he wasn't before," Nuckolls said. "We are desperate for that to continue."

At St. Paul's, Logan is studying robotics and Buddhism in addition to his core subjects. Nuckolls praised the school's academic quality and accepting social environment.

"If we can carry that same sort of dictum forward and move into the high school experience, I can only see good things happening," she said.

Nuckolls, whose family is Presbyterian, encourages non-Episcopalian families to consider the school.

There are currently 132 kindergarten through eighth-grade students and 143 preschoolers enrolled at St. Paul's. Only 28 percent of the student body is Episcopalian, said Father Kevin Bond Allen. Jewish students and one Muslim student attend St. Paul's.

Students are required to attend chapel, but the school does not proselytize, Allen said.

Students take classes in comparative religion and spirituality and learn values in a spiritual environment.

"We don't want to generically wash down the chapel service so it's trying to be all things to all people and ends up being of no value to anyone," Allen said. "There are ways we can bring in and honor all traditions."

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Bellingham Herald, Bellingham, Wash.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Bellingham Herald, Wash.

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