It has been almost 20 years since King’s West changed its name from Bremerton Christian Academy. The school has made another name change for 2009, this time opting for Crosspoint Academy.
The leadership at CRISTA Ministries, a Christian outreach organization, felt the idea to rename the school was a sound one, according to Sally Ralston, spokeswoman for King’s Schools.
“They engaged a ‘naming consultant’ to study our school, our plans and our market,” Ralston said. “This consultant worked to create a list of potential school names. King’s Schools and CRISTA ministries leadership then pared that list down to their four top choices. These four were presented to the school leadership team and the team unanimously selected one from that list. The name we chose was Crosspoint Academy.”
Bryan Peterson, the head of Crosspoint, said an 18-month strategic planning process led to not only a change in name, but also in the school’s approach to a Christian education.
“We looked at every aspect of King’s West School,” he said.
It is not uncommon for schools to look at their market position through strategic planning, and according to Ralston, most schools develop such a plan every five years.
But Crosspoint had not looked at a plan like this since the last change in 1991.
“This was important,” Peterson said. “It was a necessary endeavor for our school.”
Crosspoint, one of three schools which operate under the CRISTA Ministries umbrella, is shifting its focus toward developing leaders, according to Peterson.
“During this planning process, we landed on the idea of leadership being our over-arching theme,” he said. “So we would like to develop the next generation of Christian leaders.”
The school plans on encouraging students to take on projects in the community to develop their leadership skills and also is looking to have community leaders visit the school.
In addition, the focus has been shifted to teaching specific leadership skills, according to Eric Rasmussen, superintendent of King’s Schools.
“We landed on five core competencies that are key to what we are doing in terms of this change,” he said. “Those are critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, contemplation and cultural competence.”
These competencies are mixed with the ideas from Stephen R. Covey’s best-selling book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” to create the perfect environment for creating leaders, according to Rasmussen.
The King’s West colors will not change with the name, which will offer some reference to the previous name and avoid additional costs associated with the change.
The name change has prompted rumors the school’s direction has reversed completely, but Ralston said she wants to dispel those rumors now.
“We are a Christian school,” she said. “The core values taught when we were King’s West are the same.”
