ABOVE: Kindergarten teacher Allie VanBrocklin reads the Easter story to kindergarten and 1st graders Leo Ufer, Kylie Ulery, Myla Christens, and Abram Salazar (L-R) at Fairmont Christian School. The school has recently become independent, after operating with Mountain Lake Christian School since its inception nine years ago. Submitted photo

FAIRMONT – After multiple years of assistance from Mountain Lake Christian School to help get on its feet and running, Fairmont Christian School is officially independent and established as its own nonprofit.

The school has 38 students in kindergarten through sixth grade, having started with only kindergarten and first grade with 10 students nine years ago. To have made it here and grown in that time, Administrator Terri Linse said Mountain Lake Christian School was there for them every step of the way.

“We shared a superintendent for the first few years to help make sure we were always going in the right direction, making wise decisions,” she said. “To step away from them is a huge thing for us, but none of that was done with any sort of animosity at all. They have been nothing but supportive. We always knew that if we had a question or we needed help with something, we could always turn to them.”

The decision to move forward with this separation started last year.

“Our nonprofit status had been through Mountain Lake Christian, and the goal had always been to stand on our own, to be our own entity, our own school,” Linse said. “Starting out so small, it just took time. The board last year decided it was time to start moving forward with that, and started taking those steps to stand on our own.”

This is Linse’s fourth year at the school and the first as administrator. Though she hasn’t been there since the beginning, she said she’s well aware of what the school has sought to achieve, and she is grateful they are reaching milestones like full independence.

“Not being able to predict the future and instead relying on God to set that timeline, we are thrilled that this is our time,” Linse said. “We have amazing parents and amazing donors that have really stepped forward continually over the years; we would not be able to do it without either one of those.”

By becoming fully independent, Linse said it brings the decision-making processes in-house, which is beneficial in multiple ways.

“We can ask for help from larger corporations, whereas before, help had to come through and ask from Mountain Lake,” she said. “Larger corporations that offer some sort of scholarship or grants, we can apply for those on our own. We never want to have a student not be able to attend because of cost. We are doing our own bookkeeping and payroll. Sometimes the distance made things a little difficult to communicate and keep payroll and bookkeeping going the way that they should.”

Coming into the administrator role as all of this has unfolded, Linse said being at Fairmont Christian School has been a very close-knit experience.

“When the opportunity became available for the administrative position, it was something I thought about for a while,” she said. “It was something that God prompted me and said, ‘Yeah, you’re ready. You’re ready to do this.’ With a lot of help from a lot of people and the team as well, I think we’ve had a very successful year and a lot of fun along the way.”

Looking forward, the key addition Fairmont Christian School is seeking is a 1st-grade teacher, as Linse currently fills this role in addition to her responsibilities as administrator. This addition is also pressing as the school anticipates a rise in student population in the near future.

The school is hosting an upcoming online auction fundraiser from April 8 to 12 and will be welcoming a visit from the Reptile and Amphibian Discovery Zoo on April 14.

“This is our biggest fundraiser,” Linse said. “It is an online auction, and we have a team that goes around to area merchants and gets donations. People are very generous. I was just looking at some of the donations that have come in, even just in the last day or two, and they’re pretty special.”

For more information on the fundraiser, visit 32auctions.com/fcs2026. For more information on the school, visit fairmontchristian.org/