This Tacoma private school got $200K to keep doors open, but its future remains uncertain
On Friday, students and staff at Sound Christian Academy braced for a potential shutdown of operations. Administrators asked for the impossible: $210,000 in just five days.
On Wednesday morning, they met their goal.
More than $213,000 was in the books when The News Tribune reached interim head of school Matthew Richey via phone one hour later.
“The biggest thing that I’m feeling . . . is just gratitude,” Richey said. “I’m just grateful for all the people that stepped up and helped us. I’m just floored.”
The private school at 2310 S. 66th St. in Tacoma has about 300 students and was formerly known as Tacoma Baptist Schools, according to its website and Facebook page. It was founded in 1960 and “has been providing quality, affordable, biblically-based K-12 education in a grace-filled, Christian environment in south Tacoma, WA for over 60 years,” the website says.
Sound Christian Academy put out a call for help on Facebook Feb. 28, asking people to give online or bring cash or checks to the school’s finance office. Without $210,000 by March 5, the school would be forced to close its doors, the post said.
The money will help the school get through the month of March. It needs an additional $30,000 by the end of the month, Richey said. But he’s feeling cautiously optimistic that they’ll be able to pull through, especially after their annual auction March 15, to be held at the school gym.
They’re also exploring other options, including a potential merger with another Christian school, but that school has until March 19 to make a decision, according to a Facebook post.
It’s unclear what exactly led the school into debt, but a comment from the school under one of their posts alluded to past management issues among other factors.
“Like any institution, we must own that we have had periods of good leadership and bad leadership, internal conflict and years of peace and collaboration, poor stewardship and wise decision makers, thriving enrollment and scarce years,” the school wrote. “Add in inflation, turnover, crisis mode operations, an outdated business model, and aging infrastructure, and you have a school, that by the grace of God, IS healing despite facing its most critical financial crisis in its history.”
The school also clarified in the comment that it isn’t owned or operated by a church, and the 80-plus churches its students and staff attend don’t provide steady cash donations. A majority of its students’ families qualify for financial aid, according to the comment.
Asked to elaborate, Richey declined to share specifics but said the school has been running a deficit for some time and has accumulated debt over at least the last decade, which he characterized as poor stewardship. He doesn’t blame any particular person or decision, he said. He’s only been serving as interim head of school since January 2024 and spent about 10 years before that as a teacher at the academy.
He also confirmed that periods of low enrollment and inflation have played a role in creating the school’s budget shortfall, adding that private education is expensive and the school’s students generally don’t come from wealthy families. The school went seven years without raising tuition rates until increasing them significantly last year, according to Richey. The hike in tuition caused some of families to leave the school, but it allowed the school to cut its deficit in half.
“Our demographic . . . I would characterize it as blue collar, gritty Tacoma,” he said. “It’s who we are. It’s a beautiful thing of who we are . . we’re not like a super wealthy, private school where people can afford to pay huge amounts of money for tuition. Our families make a tremendous sacrifice to be here.”
Richey said Sound Christian Academy is committed to making a decision about next school year by the beginning of April, knowing that families are making decisions about where to enroll their kids next year, he said. They’ve also committed to being “honest and transparent” with their staff through this process, and he’s been deeply encouraged by how none of the staff members have quit or stopped showing up, Richey said.
“We have a lot of work to do in this next month to be able to right the ship, build a business plan that is sustainable not only for the rest of this year but going forward,” he said.
This story was originally published March 6, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
