Take one retired and energetic husband-wife team, a group of parents with a vision and a desire, and a welcoming church whose campus was a public school campus and you have the ingredients of Mountain Area Christian Academy.
The school opened its doors in August 2000, but not without a year of prayer and preparation. Howell Teasley, a former Lockheed director, and his wife, Jane, a former high school teacher, retired to north Georgia and became active members of Morganton Baptist Church. An unexpected clause was discovered in a deed for the abandoned Morganton Elementary public school property that made the church the new owner of the neglected, three-building campus. The Teasleys, along with a group of parents who were then driving to a Christian school some distance from their homes, asked the church if the school could use the renovated church as a Christian school. Following an affirmative vote of the church and a meeting with the regional representative of the Association of Christian Schools International, the church voted to allow a Christian school to be housed in the church-owned facilities. Howell Teasley was appointed administrator with his wife as co-administrator. The first chairman of the board was the Rev. George O'Brian, Chris Scoggins was elected vicechairman, and Teri Bledsoe was voted secretary and her husband, Chris, treasurer.
The response to the creation of Mountain Area Christian Academy was so enthusiastic that the school opened its doors with an enrollment of 40 students and seven teachers.