FOCA starts year with new principals

Francis Skiles and James Holder are embarking on a new journey with First Odessa Christian Academy this year.

Starting its sixth year, FOCA decided to start the year with an elementary principal and a secondary principal. First Odessa’s year began Aug. 14.

Skiles is the elementary principal and Holder is in charge of secondary. First Baptist Church Executive Pastor Steve Crone said the move to divide the head of schools position into two came from wanting to lighten the load on those in charge.

“We found that the workload that was required of a single head of school was overbearing and we decided to have two people take on the load and be more focused on their particular age groups,” Crone said.

This is Holder’s first year at First Odessa Christian and first year in administration. He taught fourth grade for two years at Ireland Elementary and before that he taught seventh grade English at Bonham Middle School for three years.

Skiles is in her 16th year in education. She was at Reagan Elementary School for many years and started at San Jacinto Elementary. She was also in curriculum and instruction for Ector County ISD. This will be her fourth year at First Odessa Christian.

Holder was in youth ministry at different churches, mostly First Baptist churches, in different areas.

“That was one of the keys in coming on here was having the experience in ministry and now some experience in education. This whole idea of putting those two together is what really excites me about it; being able to not just help lead educators, but to view everything through that Biblical world view and making sure all the education that we’re doing is taught in that way I think is the most exciting thing for me,” Holder said.

“My biggest goal is to see our students going out in the community and advancing the gospel and making a difference in this community; really, truly raising up disciples all the way through the education process,” he added.

Skiles said they just want to be a servant leader to the teachers, families and students so they go out into the community and do the same for everybody else in the community. They also want to bring excitement back to the school.

Holder said when you send your children to church, whether it’s a youth group or kids ministry, it’s such a short time. Parents know when the kids are there they’re “being discipled,” learning the gospel and learning the Bible. But it’s only a couple of hours a week if they go to everything.

During the school year, the most time kids spend anywhere is at school.

“To know that it’s not just them getting that growth at church, but now even all through the school day. This is the key and this is the growth that’s happening,” Holder said.

Skiles said the new curriculum at FOCA is incredible because it builds a Biblical world view in every subject. This is on top of the students’ Bible time and chapel time.

Chapel is held once a week and Holder will lead it.

Crone said they are expecting 125 to 150 students this year.

He said the school is actively enrolling and the numbers are increasing.

“We’ve got … probably the best structure that we’ve ever had starting the school year, a wonderful school board and James and Francis are already … doing a fantastic job getting things ready for the school year,” Crone said.

He added that they have narrowed down the curriculum to where it’s the same throughout their entire system through 11th grade.

“It’s very cohesive amongst all of our grades now. We’re an accredited school,” they are also part of Texas Alliance of Accredited Private Schools (TAAPS), Crone said.

Skiles said having First Odessa Christian in Odessa is incredible because Midland has a lot of private school options.

“To be able to offer that to our Odessa citizens … (is) incredible especially up to the high school level,” she added.

“I really see the big picture, the long term vision for this school is to grow and to continue that discipleship process so knowing what individual students, what kind of impact they will have on the community as they are growing but then also being able to think about the school as a whole with the community service projects that happen throughout the year. … A lot of students who attend here, their families do come to church here, but there are plenty who go to other churches as well and even coming from other towns. So knowing that impact that we have on individuals spreads out like it does, it’s a huge impact and a huge blessing, I think, to the community as a whole,” Holder added.