Photos by Samantha Davis. The True Light congregation area sits in the newly remodeled east side of Grace Life Church. The school welcomed their first class of high school students on Tuesday. Below: Grace Life built an updated fellowship hall, that will also be a learning center for high school students to study and collaborate in.

MARSHALL — True Light Christian School welcomed in its first class of high schoolers on Tuesday, marking the start of a new era for the establishment.

True Light has partnered with Grace Life Church as a joint tenant, where the church remodeled the east side of the building for additional space to house high school students. There is also a new learning commons area upon the entrance, that holds new furniture, flexible seating and natural lighting. The school started with a financial model to hold 12 students starting with freshmen, and plan to welcome in more and another grade each year.

“We had parents come to us and say, ‘Hey, I really like what you’re doing through eighth grade, could you go further?” principal Zach Schubert said. “One of the things that’s honestly just been a pin point for me in being here, has been when eighth grade is your ending grade, you miss out on so much good stuff from your students.”

Before True Lights, there was the Marshall Area Christian School founded in 1987, which did have a high school. The school closed down in the late 1990s, but Russ Oglesby founded True Light and it has grown into what it is today — a pre-kindergarten to high school non-denominational Christian school.

“Grace Life built this addition five years ago, and so when they built it, they didn’t necessarily have a high school from True Light in mind,” Schubert said. “But we’ve been renting from them since 2006 when they bought the building. That’s when we moved in here with them.”

Although starting with a small class of freshmen, Schubert said there is already interest from other families and students for the years to come.

The high school will take classes both in person and online.

“We have the majority of our classes taught in person. So, it’s about 60/40 at this point, 60% in person, 40% asynchronous online,” Schubert said. “We’ve decided that we’ve prioritized math, science, PE [physical education] health and Bible to be our in person classes. They’ll be doing social studies and English asynchronously.”

In the learning commons area, where high schoolers will spend a majority of their time studying, there will also be a full-time learning coach that will oversee them.

“The idea is for the high school to be in this space [learning commons], so that they have the flexibility that they’re going to need, because this would be a more collaborative space,” Schubert said. “So, if they’re going to do a group project, they could use one of the [hightop] tables or one of these tables [booths], but if they really need to focus more, they can kind of sit down to either face the window and just look outside, or in one of those pods to kind of work more individually and have it more quiet.”

True Light academics also incorporate a partnership with NorthStar Academy, an online classes based organization. This allows students a freedom to take more electives of their choosing, in addition to the required online classes.

“They [NorthStar] started because they wanted to support kids of missionaries,” Schubert said. “Their kids need schooling, but they can’t hire all these teachers. So, NorthStar started with that mission in mind, and then has branched out to home schools or private schools like us who want to start something new, but don’t have the staff to do that.”

Graduates of True Light will receive a diploma through NorthStar Academy, which holds accreditation from both Cognia and the Association of Christian Schools International.

Students also will have opportunities with Postsecondary Enrollment Options [PSEO], which allows sophomores to seniors to earn college credits in high school at no additional cost.

Through their academics, True Light will pride itself on helping students excel spiritually as well. Students will attend a weekly chapel program in the church’s congregation, where they will also utilize the space for school plays and other activities.

Coming out of middle school age is when kids oftentimes begin to grow into themselves more, which True Light faculty is excited to be a part of now.

“Being able to walk through their high school years in a Christ centered environment and say, ‘Hey, as you mature and grow, we want to be there to help your faith grow as well.’ That’s probably the thing I’m looking forward to the most,” Schubert said. “Being able to watch them mature, and help them in their faith journey through some of the greatest years of their life, as far as their formation of how they view the world.”