From left, Lucas Fullerton and Leah Branch will graduate from the Belpre Christian Academy in 2023. The school off Ohio 7 north of town is celebrating its 50th anniversary. (Photo by Jess Mancini)

BELPRE — A local Christian school is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

The Belpre Christian Academy held its first classes in September 1973, at that time in the Calvary Community Church where the late Pastor Clay E. Sloan agreed to return to the church provided it established a school.

“He came back, but he wanted the church to start a school,” said Ken Fullerton, the administrator of the Belpre Christian Academy. Sloan died in 2020.

“I wish Pastor Sloan was still alive so he can see it is still going,” Fullerton said.

The gym and kitchen was built adjacent to the church in 1979, Fullerton said. An addition was added in 1981 that serves as the main learning center. The academy moved to the new facilities in 1981. The school teaches students in grades K-12 and has two teachers and a monitor, he said.

Principal Eric Fullerton in the classroom at the Belpre Christian Academy where students are completing their work. The school is celebrating its 50th anniversary, starting as the vision of the late Pastor Clay Sloan. (Photo by Jess Mancini)

“It’s a lot like a one-room school,” Fullerton said.

A banquet is planned for the spring to celebrate the 50th anniversary, he said. Everyone who has attended the school is invited, of which there are about 250 graduates.

Belpre Christian Academy started with 20 students in 1973. It has 28 this year, but has had an enrollment of more than 110 in some years.

The first principal was Happy Roberts. Other principals were Ed Shemelia, Walt Allen, Wayne Dunlap, Jim Dickie, Jerry Wilson, Okey Ahart, Clinton Beach, Steve Snyder, Henry Thaxton, Jerry Suhr, David Nutt and Eric Fullerton, Fullerton’s son.

Eric is the longest-serving principal at 18 years. He graduated in 1992 from the academy where he also teaches and coaches the basketball team, which last year went 16-2. Eric has a degree in education from Tennessee Temple University at Chattanooga.

Elaine Fullerton watches Doniven Vass, a junior at the Belpre Christian Academy, complete an assignment. Fullerton is a teacher at the school and the wife of administrator Ken Fullerton. The academy is marking its 50th anniversary. (Photo by Jess Mancini)

“I started here about five years after college,” Eric said.

Ken and his wife, Elaine, a teacher, have been at the school for most of its existence. She has taught all the disciplines for 36 years.

Eric’s son, Lucas, is a senior at the school. He and Leah Branch will graduate this school year.

“It’s just a really good atmosphere here,” Branch, a member of the volleyball team, said. “In the classroom and out of the classroom.”

In her third year at the academy, Branch hopes to be an elementary school teacher, but doesn’t know which college she’ll attend.

The Belpre Christian Academy is celebrating its 50th anniversary. The school is affiliated with the Calvary Community Church. From left are Administrator Ken Fullerton, student Leah Branch, teacher Elaine Fullerton, student Lucas Fullerton and teacher and Principal Eric Fullerton. (Photo by Jess Mancini)

“You really see the focus on Christ here, not just from the teachers, but the students as well,” said Lucas, who wants to be an engineer, perhaps a civil engineer.

The school uses the Accelerated Christian Education curriculum, Ken said.

At the beginning of the school, parents wanted an environment for their children that would reinforce the values they were taught at home and in church, Ken said. Too many times children were telling their parents their teachers in public schools were telling them something different than what they were being taught in church, he said.

“Too many times there was a conflict,” he said.