LETTER FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

DEAR WESLEYAN FAMILY AND FRIENDS,

I trust the fall 2021 edition of the Wesleyan magazine finds you well and enjoying the Christmas season with your family and friends. As this semester ends, I look back with overwhelming gratitude at what God has done, and continues to do, in and through Wesleyan School. As is normally the case, in the pages of this magazine, you will read about some of the highlights of this semester, as well as some sad news on the passing of members of the Wesleyan family. You will learn more about what is going on around campus and the terrific work of our students, employees, and graduates.

However, as I reflect on this semester, my mind quickly goes to two significant events in the life of our school over the last several months. The first is Friday, September 3, the 25th anniversary of Wesleyan’s first day of school in Peachtree Corners. I never grow weary of remembering and recounting the series of miraculous events God orchestrated to establish and grow our school in Peachtree Corners. While we never want to live in our past, it is equally important to not forget our history and to pause and consider the lives of parents, employees, students, and guests who have been exposed to the Gospel due to their time on our campus. Praise the Lord for His abundant blessings over the last 25 years!

During the last week of October, Wesleyan was visited by an institutional review team from the Council on Educational Standards and Accountability (CESA). The purpose of this organization is found on its website: “CESA exists to motivate, support, and hold accountable Christian schools that aspire to superlative academic standards, institutional best practices, and collaboration with like-minded schools.”

Every five years, a group of heads of school from other Christian institutions visit member campuses in an effort to determine if members are meeting the institutional standards set forth by CESA. The team then generates a report in which the school receives commendations, areas for improvement, and recommendations for consideration by the board and administration. Thankfully, Wesleyan School received many commendations, but one stood out for me: “a strong commitment to school improvement is clearly evident throughout the Wesleyan community.”

This kind of external observation speaks so well of our entire community and validates the culture of continuous improvement at our school. While we want to be thankful for and humble about our many blessings, we never want to become complacent. We want to consistently push ourselves to find ways to make the Wesleyan experience better for our students, parents, and employees. This is an act of worship on our part: to be good stewards of what God has done at Wesleyan while always seeking to make the school better in an effort to attract more families who will then be exposed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is in this way that God can use Wesleyan to further His kingdom!

As we close out this calendar year, I hope all of us will focus on what is most important. We live in a world and in a time in which there are any number of distractions that could take our focus away from the real reason why we celebrate at this time of year: the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That gift from God, and that moment in history, changed everything for all humanity and is certainly worthy of observance and celebration!

Thank you for reading this edition of the Wesleyan magazine, and may God bless you and your family in 2022.

For His Glory,

Chris Cleveland, Head of School