Eight Ohio churches launch Christian school in Columbus neighborhood

A collaboration of churches, pastors and neighbors has brought a Christian school to Columbus, Ohio’s Hilltop neighborhood.

Hilltop, an area that was once home to Olympic gold medalist Jesse Owens when he attended Ohio State University, is an area that has seen recent spikes in gang activity and violence. Now, it will be home to the new Westside Christian School.

“It all started as a prayer walk,” said Ben Douglass, pastor of Faith Community Church in the Hilltop. “Churches on the west side started partnering together in 2020 after the George Floyd case, and during COVID. We saw as a church that there was brokenness and we needed to do something.

“So 30 church organizations walked one mile together to a park and prayed there together. And that started a lot of conversations about our neighborhood.”

Then came the pandemic, and schools around the city shut down. During that year, churches in the Hilltop area began to offer online classrooms – physical space at the church for students to sit and participate in their online classes. They provided help with online learning, tutors, snacks and games. 

“My wife and I live in the neighborhood and had the dream of seeing a school happen. We started talking about it because we had so many kids that I knew were struggling in the public schools. They were failing,” said Douglass. “We knew we had to do something for these kids, and my daughter was one of those kids.”

For the students who weren’t succeeding in public schools, there were no nearby alternatives that were accessible and affordable, he said. 

So Douglass hosted a meeting in May 2021, and pastors from different churches and denominations came. They all wanted to see a school happen.

To bring the vision of Westside Christian School to life, eight area churches committed funding for the project. The school, which will open in the fall of 2022,  will start with kindergarten through second grade, and be housed at Memorial Baptist Church, which has ample classroom space. 

“We want to provide a high quality education with a Christian worldview,” said Douglass. “Where children come in, learn about Jesus, and also have the academic rigor they need to be successful.”

Brenda Williams, a recently retired charter school principal, will serve as Westside’s principal.

The Ohio Christian Education Network, a public policy group that advocates for educational freedom, has provided support and advocacy along the way. Westside Christian is one of more than a dozen new Christian schools that will open across Ohio in the next several years.

“I may be described as the leader of the project, but it’s God,” says Pastor Douglass. “He uses broken people to do what needs to be done.”

The school’s website banner sums up the school that started as a prayer walk: “With God, All Things Are Possible.”