Mount Calvary

There is a school in Tampa that is rich in history and heritage. It is considered a church school by those who run it, but it reaches out to people of all faiths, races and greed.

In Assignment: Education.. Bill Ratliff takes us to Mount Calvary Junior Academy.. Tampa's second oldest Black Private Christian school.

--[Class says in unison:] "A, about, after, all.."--

At Mount Calvary Junior Academy kindergartners are going over some of the "A-words" they've just learned.

--[Girl reading says:] "He also taught them to rotate crops.."--

In another room, a group of first-graders is learning about famous black American George Washington Carver. That wouldn't surprise any visitor to this school.. For it is an all-black school. But it's also something else.

--[Teacher says:] "The word commitment means one thing. You give all of yourself to be a Christian."--

Mount Calvary is a Christian school, where the emphasis on religion equals the emphasis on a core education curriculum. First opened in Tampa in 1919, it's run by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. It's Superintendent is Elder Oster (ah-ster) H. Paul.

--[Elder Oster H. Paul says:] "This school uses the Bible. This school believes in prayer and it is their decision to make whether they want their child to be in this school, because it is first a church school."--

No apologies are given. Nor are apologies given for the fact it's an all black school.. Even though a few white children have attended here. Jacquelyn Titer has sent two of her children to Mount Calvary Junior Academy. She says the while school's ethnic and religious heritage are important to her.. so is its track record.

--[Jacquelyn Titer says:] "We feel very comfortable in bringing our children here because we know they have been in the business of education for a long time."--

Graduating eighth grader Harriette Anderson may say it best, however, when she describes Mount Calvary as family.

--[Student Harriette Anderson says:] "It's like a home environment. The teachers are friendly and basically everyone knows everyone here."--

Mount Calvary Junior Academy is currently a day care-through-eighth grade school, but it with plans to expand to 12 grades.

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