MUDDY CREEK TWP — In 50 years, Portersville Christian School, 343 E. Portersville Road, has gone from holding classes in a church basement to a 17-acre campus and plans to add a second campus.

To mark its 50 anniversary, the school will have a dinner and silent auction from 7 to 10 p.m. May 17 in the Robert M. Smith Student Union Ballroom on the Slippery Rock University campus. Speakers who have had an impact on the school will be present.

“We will have a mixture of current students and families, teachers and staff, current and previous administrators and also alumni,” said Chris Woods, chairman of the development committee at the school.

“Right now we are looking at 300 people in attendance. I would estimate that 100 of them will be alumni of some sort — the uniqueness we have is that some alumni now have children and grandchildren in the school. We are working on third generation,” he said.

Woods of Evans City said the speaking lineup is still being formed, but “we will have a mixture of alumni from each of the five decades of the school.”

“Also featured highly will be members of the founding family of the school, which now have some third-generation grandchildren attending,” said Woods. He added speakers will include former and current administrators and financial supporters.

Lee Saunders, the principal of the school for the past four years, said the school was formed in 1964 by the pastor of Portersville Christian and Missionary Alliance Missionary Church, the Rev. Joseph Morris. His wife, Betty, was one of the first school teachers, and of the 22 initial students meeting in the basement of the church, three were Morris children.

“They saw that the area didn't have a wide variety of educational choices for Protestant Christian families,” said Saunders. “In such a remote area, they would have a strong ministry to families in the area.”

“Other churches got wind of what they were doing and wanted to get involved,” said Saunders.

From that beginning, Portersville Christian School has grown to draw students from the Butler, Slippery Rock, Grove City, Zelienople and Cranberry Township areas.

Saunders said today's school has 236 students enrolled in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade on a 17-acre campus.

The school will graduate 17 seniors May 31.

“We integrate elements of the Christian faith into the curriculum,” said Saunders. “In teaching English or in teaching science, we teach from a Christian perspective as they are appropriate.”

“Every student in every class has a Bible lesson every day. As a school, we have a chapel service once a week. It's in the gym. We've outgrown the church sanctuary,” said Saunders.

“There's really not an overwhelming presence from any one denomination” in the student body, said Saunders. “We have Presbyterians, Lutherans, Methodists and about two dozen Catholics.”

Many students come from nondenominational megachurches, he added.

“It's a pretty diverse group when it comes to church participation,” he said. “The differences between the denominations are exaggerated. We haven't had any doctrinal controversy in the four years I have been here.”

He added the 27 teachers are taught to emphasize the common points of the students' various faiths and to refer any doctrinal disagreements to students' respective pastors.

“We have graduated Godly men and women into all areas of the secular and religious work worlds,” said Woods. “We have many successful business owners, lawyers, doctors, as well as pastors, youth leaders and missionaries.”

Portersville boasts co-ed soccer and archery teams, a girls volleyball team and boys and girls basketball teams that play in the South West Christian Athletic Conference.

In academics, the school is accredited by the Association of Christian Schools International and the Middle States Association of Schools and Colleges.

“While all of that is important, one of the largest impacts is having a sacrificial staff of teachers that know, love and care about my children, not only as a student but also as a person,” said Woods, who has a son and a daughter enrolled at the school.

“This school is dedicated to preparing young adults to make an impact in all areas upon graduation with a Biblical world view to guide and direct them,” said Woods.

Saunders said construction on the school building started in 1969, and the first class was held there in 1971.

An expansion in 1977 added a gymnasium. In 1994, the school built a new gym and converted the old gym into 12 classrooms, a science lab and a computer lab.

“A modular annex was added to the end of the building in 2008,” said Saunders, “but that's about all the flat land we have.”

Saunders said the Portersville Christian School Board is weighing a possible expansion into Cranberry Township with the creation of a satellite school

“A branch campus in Cranberry Township is on the drawing board. It's part of our long-range planning,” said Saunders. “That's the area with the biggest potential growth.”

He said, “The first step would be to partner with some church and lease space. We could make initial approaches within a year.

“Ultimately, we would have a whole new Christian school campus. It could easily double enrollment with 300 to 400 at the new school,” he said.

As for past Portersville graduates, Saunders said, “We sent out for the banquet over 900 invitations. There are some gaps in the records, but our estimate is that over the course of the years, we've graduated 1,200.”

Saunders said there is no alumni association, but there are class captains that have kept in touch with classmates, and the school has used yearbooks and school directories to track down alumni.

“The school is still affiliated with the church,” said Saunders. “The church board is responsible for nominating the school board candidates. The school community elects the board.”

The pastor or another representative from Portersville Christian and Missionary Alliance Church serves as school board director, and four of the nine members must be members of Christian and Missionary Alliance churches.

✓ Portersville Christian School begins in 1964 after the Rev. Joseph Morris, pastor of the Portersville Christian and Missionary Alliance Church, starts the school to provide Christian education for the children of the church and the surrounding area. The school had grades one through six. Every year after that a grade is added as the oldest class moves up.✓ In 1969, a separate building is constructed on a 17-acre property behind the church with the help of parents and student volunteers.✓ The first commencement is in 1970 when the oldest class reached 12th grade.✓ A gymnasium is built in 1977 at the end of the school building.✓ A full-size gymnasium is built as a separate building in 1994.Over the next three years the old gym is renovated into classrooms, labs and the library.✓ In 1997, the school receives accreditation from the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools and the Association of Christian Schools International.✓ A modular annex is added to the building in 2008.

<B>WHAT: </B>Portersville Christian School 50th anniversary observance<B>WHEN: </B>7 to 10 p.m. May 17<B>WHERE: </B>Robert M. Smith Student Union Ballroom on the Slippery Rock University campus<B>INFO: </B>Tickets available by calling the school at 724-368-8787 by Friday