Mostly cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy after midnight. Low 66F. Winds light and variable..
Mostly cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy after midnight. Low 66F. Winds light and variable.
Updated: September 12, 2023 @ 9:50 pm
Kent Harrison, head of Christian Heritage School, speaks at a Sept. 7 Greater Dalton Chamber of Commerce event.
Kent Harrison, head of Christian Heritage School, speaks at a Sept. 7 Greater Dalton Chamber of Commerce event.
2023 marks the sixth year at Christian Heritage School for Kent Harrison.
“It’s an honor to be in a room full of educators and community supporters that care about our children’s experiences,” the head of school said at a Greater Dalton Chamber of Commerce-sponsored event on Sept. 7. “I just want to say how proud we are to be parts of it.”
Harrison talked about some of the latest happenings at the independent, K-12 non-covenant college preparatory school at the State of Education and Workforce Luncheon event at the Dalton Convention Center.
“There’s a difference between a private school and an independent school,” he said. “Christian Heritage is independent, meaning that I serve a board of trustees that is self-elected … we make our own decisions, we make our decisions annually based on the needs of the students we have at this current time.”
The school, he said, is “unapologetically Christian,” with a covenant faculty.
“We sign a statement, in a nutshell, saying we believe Jesus is who He says He was,” Harrison said. “We’re not going to apologize on a daily basis just for promoting it and living out our Christian faith in front of our students — but whether they choose to follow that path, it’s completely up to them.”
He noted that the school’s resources are fairly limited.
“If we strive to do a variety of things, we get diluted,” he said. “So our board of trustees expects that our resources are going to create a college preparatory curriculum, meaning that every student who graduates from Christian Heritage would graduate with a diploma that would allow them to attend a four-year college of their choice.”
Harrison recounted how Christian Heritage School sprouted out of Kinsey Drive Baptist Church well over 30 years ago.
“Families wanted a Christian experience,” he said. “Naturally, if you’re going to have Christ here in Dalton you have to have athletics, so we started athletic fields. and then someone said, ‘Well, if you’re going to have athletics, you have to have arts,’ so we added an arts pillar.”
He said the school has experienced “extreme growth” during the last half a dozen years, with enrollment increasing by about 46%.
“That is not a pat on my back, but God has brought some amazing educators to our community and we’re so thankful to serve alongside them,” Harrison said. “Roughly 30% of our students are not from Dalton or Whitfield County — we serve students from seven different counties, we have a local bus route that picks up in Calhoun every morning.”
Harrison contended that “knowledge of Christ” and “active faith serving Christ” are two totally different things.
“So whether you’re in kindergarten or in your senior year, our programs are opportunities that are designed to show children who He is and why their life could be filled with joy if they choose to serve Him,” he said.
About 80% of the school’s graduating seniors, Harrison said, qualify for the HOPE grant scholarship.
Another $3.3 million in non-HOPE scholarship opportunities, he continued, were extended to Christian Heritage seniors.
“Our students are truly going all over the globe and we’re so proud of that,” he said. “A student with a Christian Heritage diploma has truly worked their tails off … these children have done amazing things and we’re extremely proud of the college opportunities that await them.”
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