About Us

The Tama-Toledo Christian School was founded in early 2023. After the Iowa State Legislature passed legislation allowing Education Savings Accounts for private schools during the 2023 legislative session, several opponents of this legislation pointed out to Representative Dean Fisher that Tama County did not have any private schools in the county. As a result of these comments, Representative Fisher and his wife, Vicki Fisher, decided to start a Christian school in the Tama-Toledo area, helping to fill that noticeable gap in opportunity.
 

Dean began making inquiries as to who might be interested in helping start this school, and Pastor Steve Brant of the New Life Evangelical Free Church in Tama suggested that Megan Rosenberger and Elaine Gibson had also expressed interest in starting a Christian school in the area. A committee was formed in March of 2023 with Dean, Vicki, Elaine, Megan, Mark and Gwen Doland, and Jana Dreesman to begin work.

An initial meeting was held on March 6, 2023 at the Grinnell Church of Christ, where the Central Iowa Christian School is housed, with attendees from the CICS Board and staff, Iowa Association of Christian Schools, Inspired Life, The Family Leader, and members of the TTCS committee in attendance. The purpose of this meeting was to gain insight as to how to go about starting the school. Megan, Elaine, Mark and Gwen Doland, Dean, and Vicki were in attendance from TTCS. The first organizing committee meeting for TTCS was held at Dean and Vicki’s house on March 11, 2023. Also in attendance were Megan, Elaine, Gwen, and Jana, as well as Walt Rogers and Rebecca Johnson from Inspired Life in Waterloo. Early meetings utilized the Herzog Foundation's “Schoolbox” website training modules on how to start a Christian school. The law firm of Hagenow, Gustoff, and Karas was selected to file the necessary paperwork to incorporate TTCS and apply for 501(c)3 application. As a non-profit corporation, the Board began meeting officially on June 8, 2023, with four initial board members, Dean Fisher as President, Megan Rosenberger as Secretary, and Elaine Gibson and Marja Leena Turner as Board members. In July of 2023, Vicki Fisher and Linda Rosenberger were elected to the Board, with Vicki serving  as Treasurer.

After a review of accrediting agencies, Christian Schools International (CSI) was selected for accreditation. In order to expedite the process, TTCS contracted with the Iowa Association of Christian Schools (IACS) for a 5 module course to obtain accreditation with CSI on November 4, 2023.

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On January 20, 2024, a lease was signed with VLS Real Estate for the vacant church building at
600 Oswego Street, Tama. The building had been built as a Catholic Church in 1908 and served the Parish until 2001. After moving out of the building, it was purchased by Terry Plum, an investor who had been a member of the Parish and was married in the church. VLS, headed by Eric Slagle, is renovating the building to suit the school. Originally the demolition work had been started by VLS on the interior of the building in anticipation of turning it into apartments before TTCS became involved. Architectural plans were approved by the State Fire Marshall in July of 2024, kicking off construction work on the interior of the building.
 

A fundraising dinner was held April 26 of 2024 at the Reinig Toledo Civic Center. Nearly 150 people were in attendance. Donations exceeded $27,000 for the event.

Enrollment began in August of 2024 with a trial Parent Informational Meeting held at the New Life
Evangelical Free Church on August 12 with three families attending. Monthly parent meetings will continue throughout the year.