By Josh Bootsma
LANSING, Ill. (August 23, 2021) – Eagle Academy Christian School welcomed its students back in style for their first day on Monday, as teachers and administrators greeted them and their parents in the school’s parking lot before parading in together.
Eagle Academy is located on the south end of Lansing, at 2750 Glenwood Lansing Road. The academy is a private Christian school serving roughly 130 students from preschool through eighth grade. The school offers preschool for both 3- and 4-year-olds.
Starting around 8:15 a.m. on Monday, parents and students began to arrive at the school. Eagle Academy requires uniforms, so students arrived in their best-pressed blacks, whites, and golds. As music starting playing in the parking lot, teachers spaced themselves out with signs directing students where to go. Starting with three-year-old preschool, students gathered by their teachers for the year.
After parents, staff, and students took photos and exchanged greetings (and, in a few cases, dried some tears), the school paraded in through the front door of the building, ready to start the new year.
A new year serving local families
“We’re very excited,” said Eagle Academy Christian School Administrator Dr. Medina Bailey. “I can’t wait to just walk around the building and see everybody kind of mingling into their seats and everything.”
Bailey has been at the school since its genesis seven years ago, and has seen the full spectrum of COVID protocols since that time. Starting in March of 2020, the school went fully remote, as did all the schools in the area. Last fall, however, as public schools started online only, Eagle Academy started the school year in person, a policy that lasted through the end of the year.
Bailey said parent-school relationships have continued to strengthen over the years, and have made the pandemic a bit easier for everyone. “[Parents are] how we’ve been able to stay open through this pandemic because we stress to them they need to make sure they’re wearing their mask so the children know when they come here they have to wear their mask too.”
Teachers have also been critical to the school’s operation during the pandemic, Bailey said. The school employs roughly 15 teachers, who, according to Bailey, “Are really good with it all. They make sure we’re equipped with sanitation and all the things going on in the classroom. Social distancing — you know children — it’s hard to keep them off of each other, but [the teachers] do their best.”
Eagle Academy Christian School is located at 2750 Glenwood Lansing Road, Lansing, IL.
