State-of-the-Art Christian School Swings Into Action

WESTLAKE VILLAGE —  Oaks Christian School, home to cutting-edge computers, state-of-the-art sports facilities and gourmet coffee, opens its doors today to about 200 students.

But officials at the $40-million school, which was built with a golf course fortune and costs $12,000 a year to attend, say they do not want it to become known as Rich Kids High.

Eighty percent of the students come from public schools, they point out, and the school has awarded $500,000 in scholarships to members of the inaugural student body.

“We know next year we have to raise even more money to help make the school affordable to a wider range of kids,” said Tom Tom Konjoyan, director of development. “We know cost is a barrier to some.”

When the new Oaks Christian students were on campus for orientation Friday, they stepped past construction crews applying finishing touches to the main building.

Students, parents and faculty members alike said they came for the promise held by a well-financed, Christian school not saddled with institutional stagnancy and overcrowding.

“There is no disappointment yet,” said Wendy Hughes, the parent of a sixth-grader at the school. “It’s all brand-new, and God is all over it. I’m an ex-public school teacher, and I was disappointed with what the public high school had to offer.”

Hughes, whose daughter attended schools in the Santa Monica-Malibu district, said she has been pleased with the administration’s openness to parental involvement. The original plan was for the campus to open this year with only high school freshmen and sophomores. Hughes and about 30 other parents persuaded the school board to also enroll sixth-graders.

The administration’s hope for the school to become an academic and athletic powerhouse with more than 1,200 students is supported by a list of accouterments out of the reach of most public and private schools.

A $30-million gift from the charitable foundation established by American Golf Corp. Chairman David Price and his wife, Dallas, set the school on firm financial ground. It was the golf course management company’s connections that helped pull in $125,000 in scholarship money raised during a celebrity golf tournament last year at Spanish Hills Country Club in Camarillo.

Oaks Christian boasts an Olympic-size swimming pool with electronic touch pads, modern football stadium and gym, and a “garden cafe” that serves gourmet coffee. The classroom computer network is one of the first of its kind at a school, said Rob Crawley, a spokesman for Dell Computer, the manufacturer.

More than half the students come from the Conejo Valley. Others live in Camarillo, Pacific Palisades, Simi Valley, Malibu and the western San Fernando Valley.

They are pioneers who left schools where they had established friendships and involvement in extracurricular activities, Konjoyan said. All but three have signed up for competitive sports at the new school.

Vanessa Haight, a freshman on the swimming team, said the students are as excited about their classes as they are about sports.

“I wanted to go to a good Christian school,” Vanessa said. “[During orientation] I went to my last class, and there were only 13 people in my whole class. We’ll get a chance to know the teachers in a class that small.”

A well-equipped school with highly motivated students in tiny classes also proved to be irresistible to teachers. More than 700 applied for 15 unadvertised positions.

The school ended up with teachers who have had both classroom and real-world experience in their fields--a science teacher who had been an electrical engineer, a music teacher who is a professional trumpet player and a drama teacher who has appeared regularly on network TV shows.

Rosalind Allen, the drama teacher, said the private school post will allow her to explore topics considered out of bounds in public school.

“As Christians, we can look at the contributions the arts and literature have made in our lives and talk about the [Christian] values we can learn from reading Shakespeare, things you can’t talk about in public school,” Allen said.

The curriculum includes a semester of study of the Old and New Testament. At the same time, school board member Kris Thabit said, the nondenominational school wants to give students the chance to make their own decisions about their spirituality.

“Students don’t have to be Christians to come,” Thabit said. “Teachers do. We have encouraged the faculty to bring spirituality into their programs: How does biology work within the spectrum of who God is? We’ll teach evolution, and we’ll teach creation. Then let kids decide.”

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Times staff writer Kristina Sauerwein contributed to this story.