Photo by Emilie BoenigPrivate school emphasizes family involvement
Every time Terry McKinney opens a door to a classroom at the school she co-founded, Sterling Classical School in Leander, the students rise and say, "Good morning, Mrs. McKinney!" The response is an illustration of the way the school emphasizes "key virtues."
"Key values, like being respectful, being thankful, being forgiving," McKinney said. "We also teach our students manners."
Aside from aiming to help the children it educates be polite, McKinney and her co-founder, Sonya Dixon, say that what sets Sterling apart from other learning institutions is the merger of challenging, targeted academics with the emphasis on family, Christian values, home-schooling part-time and community service. Sterling meets either two or three times a week—pre-school through fifth grade meet twice and the higher grades meet three times per week—and the other two days the students' parents are given access to lesson plans to teach at home.
"We wanted to provide something that was of exceptional quality academically—so it was college preparatory—plus it did not take away any of the family component. So the home-school families could still enjoy that bond with their children and be a part of their education, but they did not have to sacrifice quality for that," Dixon said.
