Tacoma private school that raised $210K to avoid shutdown will close next school year
Update:
In an email to families April 3, Sound Christian Academy announced that students will be able to finish the school year in full, with the last day of instruction on June 13.
“Just two days ago, we shared the difficult decision to close SCA in early May due to financial constraints,” the email, which followed a meeting with families March 31, said. “We also said that if we were able to secure additional funding, we would extend the end of the school year. Since then, we have received funding that will allow us to complete the school year through our originally planned date of June 13th.”
More information would be provided in the next few days, the email told families. It also outlined further context for the school’s financial challenges, including declining enrollment beginning with the 2008 financial crisis and continuing through the COVID-19 pandemic, while the school continued to spend as if it was “a larger school, resulting in significant debt.” The practice of using “prepaid funds” was another factor, the email said.
The email clarified that the school will not be issuing refunds to families for tuition because the school year will be completed in full. Families considering early withdrawal were asked to contact the front office.
The News Tribune emailed the Interim Head of School for more information about the additional funding obtained for the school to remain open, but did not immediately hear back.
Original post:
Sound Christian Academy, a private Christian school in south Tacoma that recently raised over $210,000 to stay open through the end of March, told students and their families Sunday that the school will close next month.
The last day of instruction will be May 2, which will allow the school to meet “all required academic hours needed to satisfy state standards for the school year,” the email said. “If we are able to secure additional funding money, we will extend instruction through the end of May.”
The Board of Directors met Saturday to make the decision. They also held a community meeting Monday to provide more details and address any questions and concerns, taking questions submitted via a Google Form in the email.
“We understand the gravity of this announcement and are committed to supporting our students and families through this period of change,” the email said. “Although this is not the decision we were hoping and praying for, there is still much to be thankful for.”
Dominique Barnes is a parent of a junior in high school at Sound Christian Academy. The announcement that the school is closing has been hard on her son, she told The News Tribune.
“He’s grown up with his classmates since second grade,” she said. “They’re all pretty torn up about it ... because they were looking forward to graduating with each other.”
Barnes said she’s not sure what her family will do next year. She doesn’t want to put her son in public school and is considering another Christian private school or a technical school, she said.
The school’s decision to close comes on the heels of a significant fundraising campaign. Sound Christian Academy posted on social media Feb. 28 that it was facing a “critical financial crisis” and attributed the budget deficit to several factors including “poor stewardship,” low enrollment and inflation. Interim Head of School Matthew Richey told The News Tribune on March 5 that the school had been accumulating debt for at least the last decade.
The campaign asked the community for $210,000 by March 5 and an additional $30,000 by the end of March, according to the school’s Feb. 28 Facebook post. The News Tribune reported that the school slightly exceeded its goal as of March 5, raising over $213,000.
Richey said he wasn’t immediately available for a phone interview with a News Tribune reporter, but clarified via email Wednesday that the “$210,000 was what we needed to keep the school open until the end of March and give us time to pursue other options as well as fulfill what we needed to, at a minimum, for our student transcripts.”
It didn’t guarantee the school would stay open for the rest of the year or into next year, and the school “was honest with (the) community about this,” he wrote.
Asked how the school will be supporting students and teachers through the transition next year, he wrote that the school has been “in constant conversation” with teachers and families, and that staff can direct further questions to him or the board.
Asked by The News Tribune if families who prepaid for annual tuition will be eligible for refunds, or if the school’s closure will be timed to ensure that all families receive the full amount of instruction they prepaid for at enrollment, Richey wrote that the school has discussed this with families and will provide further information to families.
He declined to share about the outcome of discussions to merge with another Christian school. The school mentioned those discussions in their post asking for donations Feb. 28, saying that the other school’s decision wouldn’t be made until March 19. Richey told The News Tribune that he didn’t want to speak for the other school.
“Anyone in our community who has further questions should contact myself or the SCA school board,” he wrote. “We have been sharing everything with our families and are more than happy to answer any questions we can.”
This story was originally published April 3, 2025 at 5:15 AM.
