Liberty Christian Preparatory School

     TAVARES- Liberty Christian Prep is an accredited school, this means when a high school student graduates from Liberty they will have the opportunity to get state scholarships or federal grants for college. Accreditation is what makes a high school diploma from Liberty official. Every five years, the Florida Association of Christian Colleges and Schools also known as FACCS, accreditation officials arrive on campus to see if LCP is meeting all of the requirements of an accredited school. FACCS director Dr. Churchill states the requirements of an accredited school, “There are standards that a school has to meet and within those standards, there are well over 100 indicators that are some parts of those standards and when all of those are satisfied then the school is qualified for accreditation,” said Churchill.
Administrative Assistant Autumn Nelson said, “[Accreditation] proves that we are the real deal of a school. There are a lot of private schools that don’t have accreditation and they don't have those standards. So, they may not be offering the quality education that parents think they’re paying for.” Whether it’s accrediting a school or preparing for the accreditation officers to arrive, it’s still a long process.  Churchill said, “On my part, as Director of Accreditation, I put together the schedule of schools to be visited . . . I put together the team and I choose administrators from other Christian schools all over the state of Florida who are also from accredited schools; they know the road so they are familiar with the process.” Nelson explains what the FACCS administration has been doing, “While they are here they will be going through the student files and staff files, watching how they run things here. they will even sit here and observe me for a while.” 
     At Liberty, the staff was really confident with all of the hard work they put in. Second-grade teacher Kathy Bickhart said, “[When the FACCS administration came] It was a good experience for us and our class.” FACCS has a wealth of experience with accrediting a school. Churchill said, “We have over 50 schools representing over 50,000 students in the state of Florida, then we have  . . . another 150 participants schools. So, we get all those people together in the teachers' convention and nearly 2,000 people there. It's a big organization.” Churchill also went into what FACCS does as an organization and how the organization came to be. “The FACCS organization came to be in the late 1960s and they’re the only accreditation association that is written into the Florida state statutes. I would describe them as an organization that helps schools reach the quality that they desire to achieve. They also provide services for schools like fine arts competitions, the opportunity for the teachers to get professional development, or the teachers' conventions. They are a support service. They represent schools in Tallahassee with legislation that makes a difference so because of that, this school has access to scholarships and step up scholarships, all of that because they are accredited.”
Churchill described his visit at LCP as, “They (LCP) are family-friendly, they have a concern for not only the academic excellence of the students, but for the spiritual growth of students. They want to see students succeed. They want to work hand in hand with the parents with the homes to make sure that students are being trained in a way that parents want them to be trained. Also the facilities are very nice, well kept and there is a sense of pride in who we are in this community.” Churchill said, “The team that I have with me represents close to 100 years of experience . . . we would put this school with the best”.