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Sunshine and clouds mixed. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 77F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph..
Mainly clear. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low near 55F. WNW winds at 10 to 20 mph, decreasing to less than 5 mph.
Updated: May 21, 2025 @ 8:44 am
Campbell County Christian Academy Director of School Donnie Poston talks.
Campbell County Christian Academy Director of School Donnie Poston talks.
Without a faithful phone call from the state a few weeks ago, the Campbell County Christian Academy might have never joined Jellico Christian Academy, J. Frank White Academy and other private schools in being eligible to receive the Education Freedom Scholarships, commonly known as vouchers.
“We just accepted the fact,” CCCA Director of School Donnie Poston said in an interview with the LaFollette Press. “I kept telling the board members. I said, ‘We’re not eligible for the vouchers.’ And so they finally believed me after we applied for the accreditation. If I hadn’t asked those questions, we still wouldn’t be.”
CCCA became eligible for education freedom scholarships on May 14, literally the day before the application process opened for parents to apply for the scholarships on May 15.
The Campbell County Christian Academy, as a Category IV school, was ineligible as recently as earlier this month to receive vouchers, as those only go to Category I, II and III schools.
In an April CCCA newsletter, it was written: “CCCA begins the ACSI accreditation process. Pray for our school/staff as we begin this three-year process.”
So the CCCA applied to get accredited through the Association of Christian Schools International to become a Category II school.
“As a candidate, Campbell County has applied for accreditation and has been approved to begin the process of completing a self-study in preparation for hosting a visiting team,” said Christi Lynn, ACSI vice president of communications and engagement.
Then came a phone call to Poston from the state a few weeks ago, which Poston recounted.
She said, “Just wanted you to know that we’re calling the Category IV schools, letting them know that they’re not eligible for the freedom scholarship.”
Poston said, “I understand that.”
She said, “In order to be eligible, you’ll have to apply as a Category II and go through accreditation.”
Poston said, “We’re already approved for that. We started the process.”
“Even with that, it’s three years away.”
“I understand that.”
“Do you have any questions?”
“Sure do. I was online, and I noticed that there are some Category IVs that are listed as Category I. What are the specific guidelines? I’m reading these things.”
“Well, you have to have all of your teachers must be highly qualified, certified, teaching in the given assigned areas. They must be following the 200-day accountability program, and they must follow standardized testing.”
“Ma’am, we’re doing all of that. Every teacher I have, I don’t have anyone that has below a master’s. Everyone was teaching in their given area of expertise, and they’re highly qualified. We’ve been doing the 200-day accountability, even when the school was open before. We do the Stanford Achievement Test, and as you know, that’s the Cadillac achievement test.”
“Well, sir, you’re probably already eligible. I can send you an application.”
Among the Category I requirements, according to the state website, are that all teachers have to have an active Tennessee teaching license and be endorsed for content areas they are assigned; that the school has to offer science, social studies, mathematics and English language arts; that students from third- through 11th-grade have to take an annual standardized national achievement test in mathematics and ELA; and that schools can’t have class sizes over the maximum spelled out in state law.
“And she sent the application, and I looked at it,” Poston said. “Well, I filled it out and sent it back within the hour. Then the hard work came. I guess we sent in, in order to qualify, there were so many documents that had to be completed, which we completed them anyhow in a matter of time, not even knowing that we were even in Category I status.”
CCCA was going to complete those documents for Category II accreditation with ACSI but over a three-year accreditation process.
“She sent all that information back,” Poston said. “This is doable, but it’s going to take some hard work. And I contacted the board, and it shocked them pretty much. I think. I told them. I said, I think we can do this. Little did I know how many long hours I was going to have. I worked over here until 15 after 11 one night and 10 o’clock the night before and several evenings. And they allowed me to get two of the teachers to get a couple of subs and get them to help me. Anywhere from 40 to 50 documents, we had to upload, and even with that, there was a lot of verification on lots of things. They said, if you complete all these things, then we have to do a site visit. So we got them in. We had no clue that we would make it or not.”
A site visit happened on the morning of May 13.
Then came a letter, dated May 13, from Senior Manager of Non-Public School Programs Diana Burton to Poston, dated May 13, which read in part: “State Board of Education Rule 0520-07-02-.02 authorizes the Tennessee Department of Education to approve and monitor Category I non-public schools. Based on the information provided to the department, Campbell County Christian Academy meets the requirements for Category I approval for the 2025-26 school year.”
An email, dated May 14, to Poston from ESA Communications Coordinator Sonya McMakin invited the school to register for the Education Freedom Scholarship Program, which the school did.
“We weren’t anticipating any scholarships here,” Poston said.
According to the Tennessee Department of Education, 20,000 scholarships total statewide will get awarded for the 2025-2026 school year, and as of Monday, already there were more than 38,000 applications.
“We had several people that’s got kids here that filled theirs in, but there’s no guarantee,” Poston said. “If there’s some of them fortunate enough to get one of those scholarships, that’s well and good, but we’re a Category I and Category IV school now — and we’re going to continue on the accreditation, simply because it’s an improvement process. You’ve got to be willing to put it out there. It’s going to be tough, keep up that mark in a lot of ways, but what have we got to hide? I’ve got a staff here, in my opinion, that’s second to none, and we’ve been blessed to get a good team like that. And they’ve all said they want to come back next year. Right now, I was looking at my list of prospective students.”
CCCA has 36 students currently and 47 students pre-registered for the next school year.
“And we’ve not even really started the registration process, but I don’t know if there’ll be any vouchers come our way,” Poston said.
The capacity for the CCCA school board is 175 students, he said.
“I was here before, and when I left in 2011, we ran close to 140 — and this building was pretty full,” Poston said. “Of course, these front rooms … they’re small. We can’t get over 15 in those rooms. Now the back rooms, we can.”
This school year, CCCA has offered pre-K through sixth-grade, and next year, the school will offer pre-K through seventh-grade.
“I wish the board would go ahead and just let me have eighth-grade,” Poston said, laughing.
The plan is to add eighth-grade the following year, he said.
“Right now we only have two sixth-graders,” Poston said. “We started with, I think, 40 students. Two moved to Jellico, one to Wynn, one to Powell Valley, so we lost four. We’ve not had any new ones come in since the first of the year.”
There is currently one teacher per letter grade at CCCA except that the fifth- and sixth-grade classrooms are combined with one teacher.
“We’ve got those two classes are together, and next year, I don’t think they’ll give me another teacher,” Poston said. “I wish they would.”
So next school year, CCCA will have one teacher for fourth- and fifth-grade students and one teacher for sixth- and seventh-grade students, Poston said.
“And it’s doable,” Poston said.
There are two prospective students signed up for fifth-grade at CCCA next year and two prospective students signed up for seventh-grade at CCCA, Poston said.
“We want special-ed badly, but you have to pass that cost on,” Poston said. “Our teachers, I’d say just about every teacher we’ve got have had extensive background working with special-ed kids.”
The state still encourages people to apply for scholarships, despite the number of applicants already, saying a waitlist will be created.
According to a news release from the school, “Campbell County Christian Academy is now eligible to receive the Tennessee Education Freedom Scholarships (vouchers). As of Wednesday, May 14, 2025, the school received its Category 1 designation as a non-public school in the state of Tennessee. This allows the school to receive the scholarships. The designation may not appear on the website until tomorrow. Parents wishing to be considered for the scholarships must complete the application and submit it, beginning at 1 p.m., Thursday, May 15. As it presently stands, those being considered will be on a first-come, first-served basis. The application must be completed online at tn.gov/education/efs. Questions about the Education Freedom Scholarship may be submitted or answers located at EFS.Questions@tn.gov. Campbell County Christian Academy is now accepting applications for the 2025-2026 school year. The school has openings in all grades, preschool through the seventh grade. For more information or to complete an application, go to ccchristianacademy.com. You may also contact the school by phone at 423-352-7678.”
The number to provide for CCCA when applying for a scholarship is 9955.
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