One of the first things that a visitor may notice when entering Honey Brook Christian Academy (HBCA) is a secure locker in the main hall where students are required to keep their cellphones during the school day. There are also no brown bag lunches at HBA; rather, students share a homecooked meal each day served buffet-style in the school lunchroom. Additionally, students are also responsible for helping to clean their school, vacuuming and performing other weekly housekeeping duties.

These are just some of the aspects of HBCA that make it a unique place to educate children in kindergarten through grade 12. The school, housed at Rockville Mennonite Church, 210 Cupola Road, Honey Brook, currently serves students who come from Honey Brook and the Coatesville Area School District, although public busing is provided for students who live in Pequea Valley, Daniel Boone, Owen J. Roberts, Octorara and ELANCO school districts.

Peter Stoltzfus, who is in his eighth year as principal, explained that HBCA began in 2008 as a homeschool ministry for a local family. Additional students began to take part, and the ministry continued to expand and grow. In 2011, the church invited HBCA to use the building, so the school became a registered private school and nonprofit organization.

The curriculum includes all of the traditional subjects, and students take part in outdoor recess in the school playground behind the church. "We have Bible class, which is required. However, we are teaching creation, and that has an impact on the way that we teach science," said Stoltzfus. "We believe that the Bible is the Word of God and that it is true, so that speaks a lot to history because the Bible has a lot of history in it."

One of the school's focuses is to aid students who need help in specific school subjects they might not have excelled at in the past. "We have around 30 students, and we have 10 teachers," noted Stoltzfus. "They are not all full-time, but one of the things that we try to really provide is individualized instruction for remedial students."

At lunchtime, children enjoy a meal together. "We have a kitchen, and we have volunteer cooks that prepare hot meals every day," said Stoltzfus. "There are farmers in the community who give us beef (and other food). There are ladies from the church who volunteer their time to prepare meals."

Students and their families enjoy a fall party in October as well as a spring picnic. Students also take part in fun activities; for example, last fall, students made and bottled applesauce as a fundraiser. "We made about 990 quarts of applesauce," Stoltzfus reported. "A lot of people came in and bought some, and we kept about 100 quarts for school."

Additionally, students take part in work projects. For example, the students mulch the flower beds at the church, and they split firewood and sell bundles as a fundraiser; last year, they used the proceeds to build a gaga pit for the playground. Additional free firewood is provided to local senior citizens.

"Hands-on activities are really important to us. I grew up on a dairy farm and the importance of work was something I grew up with. We teach our students to enjoy work," Stoltzfus stated. "We really make an effort to have them bless other people." Currently, students in the school's carpentry class are building a build a bridge to the playground in the back church lot.

Students also participate in field trips. They attended the Hay Creek Festival last fall and recently visited the Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg. "In April, we are taking grades six to 12 to Kentucky for the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter because it's our year to study ancient history, and the (biblical) flood was part of that," Stoltzfus pointed out.

Students pay tuition to attend HBCA, and enrollment is open year-round. "The tuition is based on a sliding scale, which is based on their taxable income," Stoltzfus explained. "We do give scholarships, and we are almost always able to make it work for different income levels."

For more information about the school, visit http://www.honeybrookchristianacademy.org or email info@honeybrookchristianacademy.org.