STERLING — Less than five months after initial discussions began with parents seeking an alternative educational setting, Sauk Valley Christian Academy opened this week.

[ Sauk Valley in line to get two conservative Christian schools ]

It doesn’t have its own home yet, but is conducting classes at New Life Lutheran Church in Sterling.

The private school offers classes for students in Pre-K to Grade 12. It has 27 students. The curriculum is provided by Abeka, which specializes in home schooling and Christian school resources.

Tammy Marks is serving as school administrator. According to the school biography, she has homeschooled her own children and serves as office manager for a family-run IT support business, Secure Consulting Methodologies.

She said the school is blending elements of one-room classrooms and homeschooling that allows them to embrace traditional teaching methods. The school’s guiding principals, Marks said, is excellence, faith and character.

The school has five teachers: Nena Scheidecker, Rebecca Vaughn, Rebecca Wilson, Julie Holesinger and Marsha Edeus.

The school is affiliated with a growing private education movement called GRACE, which stands for Gracefully Reclaiming a Conservative Education.

Families of Faith Christian Academy in Channahon is the founding school of the network, which has been in operation for 16 years. Founder and headmaster the Rev. Randy Blan, issued a statement on the occasion of the Sauk Valley Christian Academy opening.

“The difference between the public and Christian school is not in the professionalism of its staff or perfection of its student body, but rather it is in the focus and goals of its education,” Blan said in a release.

“At GRACE, parents are assured that every teacher will not only challenge their student with rigorous academics, but also teach their curriculum through the lens of scripture and openly model the love of Jesus Christ through their actions and words,” he added.

The school in Sterling is one of several network schools opening this school year, including Faith Christian Academy in Naperville and sites in Romeoville, Lincolnway-New Lenox and Springfield.

There are plans to open association schools in St. Charles, Rochelle, Fairbury, Wood Dale and Arlington Heights in 2023.

Sauk Valley Christian Academy shares the same name with but has no connection to the non-denominational school in Galt founded in 1978 as Twin City Nazarene School that closed in 2012.

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Willow Torres, left, and Calyn Weidel, eighth-graders at Sauk Valley Christian Academy, work together on an assignment Wednesday. (Alex T. Paschal - apaschal@shawmedia.com)