Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Gailon Arthur Joy]

It is old news but a bell-weather of the troubling times that North American SDA Education is facing:
January 28, 2008


"Weimar Institute of Health & Education Board Votes to Close College

    After 30 years of training Seventh-day Adventist youth and young adults for lives of consecrated ministry, the Board of Directors of Weimar Institute of Health & Education voted to close the college program as of June 20, 2008. Taking fiscal responsibility, the difficult decision came after seeking various financial and ministries solutions for several years....

       The Board also voted to form a taskforce of business, finance and strategic planning experts to advise the Board in developing a sound, long-range plan that is consistent with its unique mission and philosophy...."

It is well known that AUC and CUC are facing seemingly insurmountable financial issues and enrollment continues to wain, for various reasons, but definitely not a positive direction.

I have seen the demise of several SDA Academies and the virtual elimination of junior academies in the northeast and nearly every SDA academy continues to struggle for existence.

What is the direction of Adventist Education in North America and why is it that we can open new schools by the dozens in places like India, Myanmar and Indonesia, but our own NAD education system is best described as "on life support"?
   

[inga]

It seems to me that unless Weimar Institute has cahnged greatly from its beginnings, it was hardly replresentative of Adventist Education in North America.

It would seem to be more representative of the best of our independent institutions.

Otoh, I recall that one of our academies in North Dakota (I believe it was) once shut down completely because things had simply gotten out of hand.

It re-opened several years later under a new administration and much stricter rules, more in line with the counsel we had been given as a church, and it quickly prospered with enrollments climbing beyond previous levels. Someone here may remember the name of the academy and report how it is doing today.

[Bob Pickle]

No academy in ND that I know of. There is one in SD, but the one in ND closed awhile back, maybe when the two conferences merged, if that's what happened.

[Johann]

A relative of my first wife was there at that time. I could get some first hand information from them if we want to know. . .

[inga]

No academy in ND that I know of. There is one in SD, but the one in ND closed awhile back, maybe when the two conferences merged, if that's what happened.

Maybe I got my Dakota's mixed up? (It was somewher in that vicinity, I thought. But it was so many years ago, that things are fuzzy in my mind. The only thing I remember for sure is that one of our academies closed for several years, then re-opened with much stricter rules and prospered -- at least back then.)

[J.R. Layman]

FWIW……North Dakota had “Sheyenne River Academy” in Harvey, N.D. till 1977. (my two oldest sisters graduated from SRA. )  The South Dakota Conference closed “Plainview Academy in Redfield, South Dakota” and Dakota Adventist Academy was built!  Back it’s first year…it had 185 students…..reportedly this year they started out with only 41 students.   Private education is simply becoming too costly  IMO.

Today Dakota Adventist Academy is doing FINE…..near Bismarck  NORTH DAKOTA!       http://www.dakotaadventistacademy.org/DAA_About.html#loc

“The academy is located on approximately 1,300 acres fourteen miles northwest of Bismarck, North Dakota on the Missouri River. It is one the most northerly academies in the continental United States and has the distinction of being on the Lewis and Clark Trail. To locate the Academy drive north from Bismarck on Highway 83 for three miles to Highway 1804 and turn left. Continue for eleven miles on Highway 1804. You will see the Missouri River on your left a few miles from the Academy. DAA is on the right side of the highway. Turn right onto Plainview Avenue and proceed up the hill. The administrative offices are located on the main floor through the center doors.”

 “Dakota Adventist Academy has a rich heritage beginning with the operation of Elk Point & Plainview Academy in Redfield, South Dakota in 1902 and Sheyenne River Academy that opened its doors in 1904 at Harvey, North Dakota. In the fall of 1977, students enrolled in the new school still under construction near Bismarck, North Dakota now known as Dakota Adventist Academy. DAA was closed for the 1987-88 school year. With renewed dedication and sacrificial giving the academy was reopened in August 1988. This monumental feat was accomplished through generosity of constituents, conference financial support, and the highly publicized "DAA Advance". 

Inga is right….that DAA closed, it was for one year,, But Bob got it wrong. It IS in N.D.  3 or 4 years ago, my 3rd sister attended the class reunion of what would have been her graduating class from  “Sheyenne River Academy,” if we hadn’t moved to Maine.  And she reconnected with many of her friends from SRA ….the reunion was held at DAA.


At some point in time, the N.D. and the S.D. conferences combined…to become the “Dakota Conference.” I am unaware when that happened.

Bob may be thinking of an Independent  school in South Dakota…..can’t recall it’s name right  now….but it’s associated more or less with some very conservative SDA’s, which is my impression.

[Bob Pickle]

Thanks for the correction. I was thinking of the conference school, and for some reason thought it was located in SD rather than ND.

[Ginge]

well, with all that talk about Weimar back in March, we now see that it is going to have a marriage with Amazing Facts.

We just had on our local news that the adventist school in Redding, Ca. is closing.  That is a pretty big church and they have over 60 children I believe.  I have said for a long time that we have out-priced our SDA families out of our schools.

We should have stayed with the Temple Plan years ago.  That plan gave every child in the church a free education and ALL the members helped support the children.

[Gailon Arthur Joy]

well, with all that talk about Weimar back in March, we now see that it is going to have a marriage with Amazing Facts.

We just had on our local news that the adventist school in Redding, Ca. is closing.  That is a pretty big church and they have over 60 children I believe.  I have said for a long time that we have out-priced our SDA families out of our schools.

We should have stayed with the Temple Plan years ago.  That plan gave every child in the church a free education and ALL the members helped support the children.

The Temple Plan took money away from the Conference and the Sustentation program and kept the money in the local church. It also took money away from the federal tax coffers. Just too supportive
of the congregational governance for a heirarchal organization. But, it is ironic that we build school after school overseas and our own children go wanting!!! This will have devastating impact over time as we watch the Adventist Education collapse from coast to coast.

A solution please???

Gailon Arthur Joy

[reddogs]

It is old news but a bell-weather of the troubling times that North American SDA Education is facing:
January 28, 2008


"Weimar Institute of Health & Education Board Votes to Close College

    After 30 years of training Seventh-day Adventist youth and young adults for lives of consecrated ministry, the Board of Directors of Weimar Institute of Health & Education voted to close the college program as of June 20, 2008. Taking fiscal responsibility, the difficult decision came after seeking various financial and ministries solutions for several years....

       The Board also voted to form a taskforce of business, finance and strategic planning experts to advise the Board in developing a sound, long-range plan that is consistent with its unique mission and philosophy...."

It is well known that AUC and CUC are facing seemingly insurmountable financial issues and enrollment continues to wain, for various reasons, but definitely not a positive direction.

I have seen the demise of several SDA Academies and the virtual elimination of junior academies in the northeast and nearly every SDA academy continues to struggle for existence.

What is the direction of Adventist Education in North America and why is it that we can open new schools by the dozens in places like India, Myanmar and Indonesia, but our own NAD education system is best described as "on life support"?
   

The answer is simple, you have to do like any business and cut expenses and contain cost. Most Principals, Pastors, and Teachers that are the core leadership for our schools never had any kind of courses in finance or business management, yet usually its left in their hands.

[Gailon Arthur Joy]

That is a novel approach...cut a school budget. Unfortunately, way to many budgets have been cut to the point that the school no longer exists...the ultimate cut.

Why is it that we do not support education in the NAD?

Gailon Arthur Joy

[reddogs]

Well our little school has kids bulging out the door and others wishing they could come, and I am trying to find a way to get each and everyone of them in and find financing for them so the parents can afford it. If church members made it their goal to find a way so that every Adventist child and any other that wanted to come to our schools could attend and get financial support, and members who assisted and encouraged them to come, all our schools would be full to capacity.

Members need to care, have a little love in their heart for others and act on it, do that and the financial and other problems are solved.....

My wife told me that the unspoken Adventist rule of thumb back in the day was every Adventist child that wanted would get a Adventist education whether they could pay or not the full tuition, and the members took care of it, we seemed to have forgotten that ..........

[Maxey]

Yes, the current model of Adventist Education in North America is in serious trouble and has been for more than 20 years.  Is it fixable?  Absolutely!

My two cents:

Elementary Schools - Where they are at least on-par educationally with the local public schools and are generally healthy in other ways, parents will embrace the sacrifice to send their kids.  The one room school is still a very desirable model.  It helps if the conference is willing to require that teachers are really qualified for the enormous task they are charged with.

Academies  - I hear many parents say that there is no way they are going to send their child off to boarding school in this day and age.  Many of the parents were themselves once in our academies and know first hand that some, not all, teachers in academies carry serious baggage that put the students at risk.  Does anyone think keeping a boarding academy open year after year for under 50 students makes sense?

Colleges - In this day in age, is there any reason we can't establish one or two super universities that would have the resources to compete with the best as far as quality of education at a more competitive price.  Is travel really the issue it once was.  Assuming the various Union conferences were willing to leave their egos at the door, isn't this something that could be explored?

Maxey

[Yevgeny]

Gailon - someone was saying something to the effect that the program at AUC was faltering for want of students... anything to that? 

[Ozzie]

Well our little school has kids bulging out the door and others wishing they could come, and I am trying to find a way to get each and everyone of them in and find financing for them so the parents can afford it. If church members made it their goal to find a way so that every Adventist child and any other that wanted to come to our schools could attend and get financial support, and members who assisted and encouraged them to come, all our schools would be full to capacity.

Members need to care, have a little love in their heart for others and act on it, do that and the financial and other problems are solved.....

My wife told me that the unspoken Adventist rule of thumb back in the day was every Adventist child that wanted would get a Adventist education whether they could pay or not the full tuition, and the members took care of it, we seemed to have forgotten that ..........

I wonder at times just what is best? Parents both working away from the home so that they can afford to pay for the kids to go to SDA Schools, or one parent staying at home, and being there for the children, when they come home from public schools? 

My husband and I both worked 12 hour shifts to fund our 4 kid's way through SDA Schools. We often wonder what would have been different had one parent been at home all the time. One can only do what they think is best in the given circumstances, but I think if I had my time over again, I'd stay home and send the kids to public schools.