Image courtesy of Naples Christian Academy
In Naples, Florida, Covenant Church of Naples (PCA) believes discipling the next generation begins at home and continues at church. But it can also extend into the school classroom. By partnering with a local Christian school, Covenant has established the means to an enduring, generational impact while helping a Christian school find a permanent location and stability for accomplishing its mission.
Their partnership began in 2022 when Trent Casto, Covenant’s senior pastor, sensed that God was calling the church to invest in Christian education and brought the idea to the church’s session.
“I have wanted to see our church be involved in Christian education for quite some time,” Casto said.
But with the church’s rapid growth, building and capital projects, and Casto’s transition to senior pastor, the church did not have capacity to make Christian education a priority.
During the coronavirus pandemic, however, several things converged: Casto saw that Naples Christian Academy – the Christian school for grades K-8 where the Casto children and other kids from Covenant attended – was struggling financially. He also saw that the pandemic caused many families to reassess their schooling choices, but Naples had limited options for Christian education.
Casto felt that the time was right for reconsidering how Covenant might be involved with Christian education. He shared his hopes with Covenant’s session, which responded enthusiastically. The elders then met with several Christian education consultants who advised them to partner with an existing Christian school rather than starting their own school.
During their research, the education consultants and a group from Covenant spent the day with NCA leadership. Rachel Haughey, NCA’s head of school, said that during their time together, the groups from NCA and Covenant realized that their values closely matched.
This was hardly a surprise to those who knew NCA’s history: members of Covenant Church founded NCA in the 1970s, though the two organizations were never formally affiliated.
Covenant began an informal partnership with NCA in 2023, inviting NCA to move out of a rental space and into Covenant’s newly-constructed student and children’s ministry wing.
Haughey said Covenant’s offer was “truly a gift to our school and a sacrifice on their part – to take what they had just completed for their own purposes and entrust it to us for two years.”
Haughey connected with NCA in 2019 when her family moved to Florida and began attending Covenant Church. The Castos recommended NCA for schooling, and the Haugheys enrolled four of their five children. Haughey cared for her youngest child at home and initially had no plans to work at NCA.
In the Haugheys’ first year at NCA, they donated to the school’s annual fund campaign. Soon after, the board asked Haughey’s husband, Will, to join the board and then to become its president. The Haugheys realized the school was in financial trouble, and they had a decision to make.
“We could run for the hills, or we could roll up our sleeves and get involved to make a difference,” Haughey said.
As both Haugheys were entrepreneurs and considered the school an important investment, they chose the latter. Will agreed to lead the board, while Haughey volunteered as bookkeeper during her family’s second year at the school.
To ease the financial strain and resolve budget issues, the school was teacher-run – no full-time principals, deans, or administrators. Eight teachers comprised the school’s total staff, but one of the board’s priorities was to hire strong leadership for the school. When others encouraged Haughey to apply for the head of school position, she initially “laughed at the idea” but soon began praying about it.
“In that process, the Lord really changed my heart and led me to at least apply,” Haughey said.
NCA hired Haughey, who began work as Head of School in June 2021.
“In this role, no two years have looked the same, but I’m grateful to have had a front-row seat to all that God has done. The school has experienced not only a remarkable turnaround in financial health, but a true rebirth – flourishing in culture, academic excellence, and a growing athletics program,” Haughey said.
According to Covenant’s 2024 annual report, enrollment at NCA for the 2021-22 school year was 81 students. Enrollment has grown steadily since, with 182 students enrolled for the 2024-25 school year.
Haughey is grateful for the new educators and staff who have joined NCA, and how academic excellence has grown with enrollment.
As Haughey begins this school year, she will do so in a new building, one the partnership with Covenant enabled NCA to purchase and renovate.
Soon after NCA began using Covenant’s building, a property came on the market that seemed perfect for the school: a former fitness center, including a 15,000-square-foot pool and basketball court, on 13 acres of land. Covenant estimated the total price of purchase and renovation cost at around $18 million and promptly launched a capital campaign on behalf of the school, knowing that they had a small window for raising the funds. Within four weeks, $16.5 million had been given or pledged to the capital campaign, allowing Covenant and NCA to buy the property.
The generosity of Covenant’s congregation and others in the community has propelled NCA forward.
The church also voted to purchase the property to the south of NCA’s new campus for potential future expansion.
“It’s an incredible reality that the Lord has continued to provide open doors for the expansion of the school… regardless of the specifics of what He does and how it plays out, I just can’t help but see his favor and provision all over it,” Haughey said.
In the midst of the capital campaign process, the elders of Covenant, alongside NCA leadership, determined that the church and school ought to establish a more formal connection than the unofficial partnership that they had embarked on when NCA began using Covenant’s building.
In 2024 NCA became a ministry of Covenant. Covenant owns the school and selects board members, but the board, not the Covenant session, manages the school.
“We needed to have ownership of the direction of the school if we were going to invest this kind of money,” Casto said, “because we really saw that this first investment is just the beginning of a lot of future investment.”
As a result, Covenant and NCA have been able to accomplish what NCA probably never would have accomplished on its own. The school has renovated its new property since purchasing it in 2023. The main building is nearly complete, and the school is continuing work on athletic facilities, including the pool.
And enrollment continues to climb. Casto said the school expects next year’s enrollment to increase to 225 students. Both Haughey and Casto want to expand NCA to include a high school as the school continues growing.
Haughey remarked that feats such as the capital campaign, renovation of the campus, and strategic planning for the next decade were enabled by Covenant.
“All of those big-picture initiatives that are essential for growth and true excellence have been made possible in such a remarkable way by Covenant Church,” Haughey said.
Covenant’s work with NCA doesn’t only involve vision casting. Covenant is responsible for the spiritual direction and edification of the school as well. Covenant’s pastor of Christian education, James Baird, acts as the school’s chaplain.
Before finishing seminary and starting work at Covenant, Baird was involved with Synthesis School, an online education company started at and inspired by the school that Elon Musk founded for his children. Baird’s involvement in education is now of a somewhat different kind: he leads Covenant’s adult education program as well as NCA’s weekly chapel programs: one chapel for younger students and another for upper grades.
Last year, Baird led the NCA students through the Westminster Shorter Catechism in chapel. This year’s chapel theme is “Bible Treasure Hunt,” which involves exploring different motifs in Scripture, motifs such as “sacrifice” or “mountains.” Baird hopes that this interactive theme will help students to grow in their understanding of biblical connections and themes.
Baird described the students as “really hungry to learn.” During the chapel for the older students, Baird sets aside time for answering student questions. Baird permits “any question at all… and I’ll do my best to look to the Scriptures and try and give them a good answer.”
While dinosaurs regularly figured among the students’ questions, so did difficult, personal questions about unbelieving or deceased family members.
Baird also leads monthly devotionals for the teachers and, this fall, led a middle school retreat around the theme of the Lord’s Prayer.
Just as NCA grows spiritually and literally as a result of Covenant’s partnership, so Covenant, too, has benefitted, as have other churches in the area. Casto and Baird both noted that more families from Covenant have been able to take advantage of the school since Covenant began working to revitalize NCA.
What’s more, Florida recently implemented a school choice program that provides every family, regardless of income, around $10,000 to direct toward tuition at a school of their choice. This program, and NCA’s participation in it, will make the school more accessible to local families.
The Covenant-NCA partnership has also allowed Covenant’s older congregants to invest in and get involved with the next generation, according to Baird.
“I think that churches should be investing as much as humanly possible in investing in excellent Christian education for their kids,” Baird said. Baird mentioned that in his reading of American Presbyterians from years gone by, he has noticed that Christian education is one of their primary concerns.
Baird spoke of his Presbyterian predecessors, saying, “They talk about nothing more than the importance of training kids… teaching them how to keep the covenant of grace by faith and walking out their faith and love and learning how to be educated people who understand God’s word and world and then being good citizens who are turning around and blessing their neighbors.” He added that “you get a chance to bless the whole world when you invest in your own children.”
Baird said that while Covenant and the broader Naples community have a unique situation compared to many churches and communities, Christian education ought to be a priority across the American church.
Casto echoed Baird’s comments: “My own growing conviction, having watched how the teachers can be such an effective means of helping confirm what students – what our kids – were getting at home and at church… [is] that Christian education, where available, should be seriously considered by families, especially in pre-k through 8th grade years.”
While the partnership has been an expensive venture that may not be replicable in other places, Casto believes that many churches and Christian schools could benefit from a partnership similar to that of Covenant and NCA, as churches can provide financial stability to struggling Christian schools or simply a physical place for schools or homeschool co-ops to meet.
Casto understands that church and school partnerships can have significant challenges, but he believes Covenant has been uniquely blessed and resourced to provide better Christian education options in Naples.
“I’m sure there will be challenges ahead, but we believe we are doing what God has called us to do, and we’ll face those challenges with his help as they come,” Casto said.
Similar to Casto, Haughey’s initial wariness has dissipated.
“I was nervous at first,” she said, “I think I went into it wary. I’ve seen so many or heard about so many church-school relationships going poorly. I’m aware of possible pitfalls or pain points, and I’m just so encouraged and grateful that that has not been our story. Our ultimate mission is the same…We’re not trying to build the church kingdom or the school kingdom but the Kingdom with a capital K – we’re in it for Christ and His Kingdom.”