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Western Christian Schools was approved to receive $12 million in revenue bonds from the Colorado Education and Cultural Facilities Authority during Monday's city council meeting.

In May Western Christian requested the city's assistance to secure the bonds which will be used by the school as financing to acquire the Upland Christian Schools property, 120 W. 9th Street, according to the staff report.

The money, along with $12 million in bonds requested through the city of Claremont, will also go toward improvements to Western Christian Schools' Claremont location on Padua.

The Colorado Education and Cultural Facilities Authority was created in 1981 to issue revenue bonds to obtain funds to make loans to assist "educational/cultural institutions to finance the costs to acquire/maintain educational facilities.

The city does not have to repay the bonds.

Western Christian has also paid the $5,000 one-time application fee.

CLAREMONT - To say Karen Winter has dedicated her life to Christian education would be an understatement.

With more than 35 years in education, a history of building Christian schools from the ground up and a lifetime of being involved with the church, Winter has become a leader in the world of Christian schools.

Winter is the superintendent of Western Christian Schools in Covina and Claremont, where she has been working for the school to acquire certain assets of Upland Christian Schools - an effort that she thinks may have been misunderstood by many parents.

"We don't always understand God's timing or why we go through challenges or different situations, and I haven't understood some of the challenges we've gone through or why some people misunderstood our intent," Winter said.

"I know my motives are pure, and our intent was very loving to the school or any of the parents or students."

Word of the acquisition leaked in September when it became known that the Anaheim District Church of the Nazarene approached Western Christian administrators about the sale.

Since then, many harsh words have been said about Winter and Western Christian Schools, which Winter says has caused equal pain for parents at Western Christian Schools.

"I think that I always have to be reminded that if I feel called to do whatever I'm called to do then I have to be unshakable," Winter said.

"Every single day, I have to stay focused as to what God has called me to do, and that's what I remind our staff about, too."

Shelley Marston transferred her children to Western Christian Schools this year from Upland Christian Schools.

"The unknown is always the scariest, and I think that's what a lot of people are dealing with, but what I have not understood is why Western has been made out to be the villain," Marston said.

"I think people who decide to stay will be very pleased. I think they will be very pleased with what they will get from Western. I think Western families tend to welcome you with completely open arms."

While Marston has concerns over Western Christian and Upland Christian Schools coming together, she said lack of clarity has never been an issue.

"She has answered any questions and had welcomed me anytime I had any further questions," Marston said about Winter. "She's been very helpful with my concerns about the two schools merging."

Winter became superintendent of Western Christian Schools in 2007.

"They had been on a national search. They had an interim superintendent, and they had been looking for about a year for a superintendent, purposefully looking for someone that was visionary, that would grow the school and had experience with building programs, vision and developing curriculum," Winter said.

"That's my strength, and that's what I've done at my last few schools, and so they called me and asked me if I would please come down and visit the school."

Winter said she was hesitant to move from her Northern California home in Vacaville where she had been superintendent of Vacaville Christian Schools for 17 years.

However, she fell in love with Southern California.

"I stepped foot on the campus, and I thought it was so beautiful and it was so peaceful and then the board shared the vision of what they had, and we prayed about it," Winter said. "We really prayed about it in our hearts, and it just meshed and was amazing. We fell in love. I love it down here."

Winter moved to Rancho Cucamonga with her husband of 36 years, Jack. They share two sons, Jonathan, 25, and Josh, 29.

Dalel Snider, parent of two sons at Western Christian High School, is a member of the schools' athletic booster club and has worked closely with Winter.

"Everything she has promised, she has delivered," Snider said. "We did not have a football field, and she promised we would have one and we did."

Snider said she views Winter as someone she can walk hand in hand with.

"It's really amazing what this woman has done. She really has transformed not just the buildings, but families and life," Snider said. "I have seen it in my kids. The way they get involved in all these things and how they've been helping the community as well. What she does is a mirror reflection of what all the kids are going to do."

When Winter graduated from Biola University, she had plans to be a public school teacher. But after the minister of her church, New Life Assembly in Corning, approached her about starting a school, her plans changed.

"I remember at first when the Lord said that's what he thought I should do, I started arguing saying I don't know if that's what I wanted to do," she said.

"It's hard for me to imagine now 36 years later that I could be passionate about doing anything else because I love it so much, and I'm so passionate about Christian education. I believe in it so much, and that's what I dedicated my whole life to doing ... and I love it."

Winter is the founder of Sonshine Christian Schools, Chico Christian Preschool and Vacaville Christian Schools' west campus for preschool through high school.

She has taught classes from preschool to college level, served as a mentoring teacher and trainer.

"I just love to speak and teach and train and be around teachers," Winter said. "I think when you're a teacher, you just love to teach and you love to be around other people who are excited about learning. You don't want to just be an administrator, you want to teach. That's what I started off doing, and I still love to teach and train."

Winter has also been a seminar leader for more than 30 years.

"People say I was effective in time management and asked me to speak on time management, and after that people started asking me to speak on other subject areas, and after a while churches and other schools started asking me to speak," Winter said.

"I'd get asked to speak at conferences, seminars and retreats, and your name gets out there and pretty soon people just say, `Speak on what you want to speak on, we just want you to speak."'

As a superintendent, Winter is involved in every aspect of Christian education.

"The superintendent has to wear all hats. You're the curriculum leader, you're the spiritual leader, you have to know the budgets, if you're growing a school you have to understand buildings and facilities, so there are a lot of hats that you're trying to juggle," Winter said.

One of the biggest challenges Winter says she is facing is the recession's impact on private education.

"Right now one of the biggest challenges obviously is the economy and yet wanting to provide the very best Christian education and wanting to make it affordable for people and wanting to make it affordable to people at all levels," Winter said.

"It's challenging because in Christian education and in private schools everyone makes less money, but we're raising the bar and we're expecting more, so that is a big challenge as well, but it's a challenge we consider a privilege."

Parents of students enrolled at Western Christian Schools were recently surveyed so administrations could find out why they chose Western.

The two top priorities were spirituality and academics.

"They put them in the survey as equal," Winter said. "So they listed them as exactly the same and right up underneath that was nurturing and safe environment. Those were the top four issues that were important and why they chose to put them in our school. They feel that's worth it."

The eight graders at Western Christian are four years above the national average, Winter said.

"It's worth the money to them because they're kids are so much further ahead," she said. "Post high school means they're past high school level in eighth grade."

Ninety to 95 percent of Western Christian Schools graduates get into the colleges of their choice, Winter said.

The parents "want them to be ready. It's very competitive," she said. "It's so much harder to get into college and so many kids now take AP (advanced placement) and they're not getting into the college of their choice, so they want every single opportunity to do that."

Winter has been married to her husband Jack for 36 years. They share two sons, Joshua, 29 and Jonathan, 25.

"We're very sports minded," Winter said. "We kayak as a family and my husband mountain bikes, so we mountain bike. We like to do a lot of sports together."

Winter said she also likes to snow ski and water ski, but most of all she loves to cook and entertain.

"I like to just entertain and have my family around and have company over and just have people around," she said. "I love to just have our faculty over and just entertain and be with other people."

Karen Winter, superintendent of Western Christian Schools in Covina and Claremont is sharing another update on the purchase of certain assets of Upland Christian Schools.

The following is from the update posted on Western Christian Schools' Web site:

Update on Upland Christian:

1. Escrow is moving forward positively with final process and with our financing.  As we have indicated in previous communication bulletins and parent meetings, it is a lengthy process to purchase church property, because of the due diligence process, as well as complications with the involvement of several organizations (a church, denominational school district, and Western).   As shared previously, additional issues that have played into the time frame were the legal issues that were resolved and the National banking issues, in addition to the long process of receiving non-profit bond funds.  We appreciate your continued prayers and support throughout this process.  We look forward to the positive results of owning our own high school campus.
2. Our current high school facilities in Covina have 32,000 square feet in comparison to Upland Christian which has approximately 96,000 square feet.
3. We plan to schedule an open house event at Upland Christian in April, for parents and students to preview the sight.
4. Our architects are currently working on plans to overhaul the current Upland Christian sports field.  When completed, the sports field will be larger and able to accommodate an 11 man football team.  The turf will be completely upgraded.

A parent survey was also conducted with parents of students enrolled at Western Christian Schools. The results can be found here.

A survey to help Western Christian Schools administrators plan a new busing system for Fall can be found here.

Seven members of the Upland Christian Academy board of trustees have been finalized.

President: Mark Purdy, President/CEO of TRL Systems, Inc.

Vice President: David Haney, retired Superintendent of Schools Fillmore & Hesperia, retired professor of education and director at Point Loma Nazarene University.

Treasurer: Robert Lemelin, President/CEO of Lexxion, Inc.

Secretary: Elizabeth Ertel, former board member of the Upland First Church of the Nazarene

Trustees: Rev. Kevin Mannoia, faculty and graduate student from Chaplain, Azusa Pacific University, former President of the National Association of Evangelicals.

Pastor Diego Mesa, Senior Pastor of Abundant Living Family Church

Teri Lawrence, writer/director.

Head of School: Sue Chiappone, former Head of School at Upland Christian Schools.

Karen Winter, superintendent of Western Christian Schools, hopes to get the booster committees at Western and Upland Christian Schools together in the near future.

Dalel Snider, Upland, is part of the booster club at Western Christian High School and said she is looking forward to working with Upland families.

"We have made tremendous progress at our campus in Covina and we're planning on continuing with that," Snider said. "We want to leave a legacy for future students to come and participate and we would be through the transition with Upland Christian."

As an Upland resident, Snider said she thinks the city will benefit from all the new Western Christian families entering the area.

"The way the finances are for the city this is going to be a great way of making more money for the city as well," Snider said. "It's going to have more families come from different areas and cities and they're going to be consuming here in Upland. I think it's a positive thing for the city."

Debra Covington has a son graduating from Western Christian High School this year, but she hopes to have an opportunity to give her input on the transition with Upland Christian Schools.

"I've been part of Western for 15 years now," Covington said. "It's a wonderful school, there are wonderful teachers, wonderful staff, the kids are great and I think it's a great addition for Upland."

Covington doesn't see the number of families transferring to Upland Christian Academy in Rancho Cucamonga as a set back for Western Christian and Upland Christian Schools.

"As far as what Western has now I think there will be plenty staying," Covington said. "Taking into account the current economy we may have had a drop off anyway, but for those that are dedicated to Western they will stay. From what I understand I think there will be a number of students that will stay here in the area with Western rather than move."

Covington said she thinks the transition of Western Christian and Upland Christian will be better than what some people may anticipate.

"Western has been looking for somewhere for quite a long time. We've been praying for a site and this met many of our prayer specifications," Covington said. "Causing another school harm and distress had never been any of our intentions."

As an Upland resident, Covington is excited over the possibility of outside families bringing money into the city.

"There's a lot of people that will come this way from Covina. We also have a lot of students that go from here (Upland) to Covina, Rancho Cucamonga students, Fontana students, Ontario students, Claremont students and La Verne students," Covington said. "So I think it will help bring in shopping traffic for downtown and the Upland area as well."

Carolyn Valle's daughter goes to Western Christian Schools' K-8 campus in Claremont.

She said she is looking forward to the expansion of Christian Schools.

"As far as how it's going to change for Upland Christian I don't think we know yet other than we're going to be larger and greater," Valle said. "There are going to be some growing pains and although a lot of the parents on campus are concerned about that we're up for the challenge because we have a great thing and we want to see it bigger and better."

Valle also said she understands the grief a lot of the families at Upland Christian Schools have been going through since they learned of the sale in September.

"Should that have happened at our school I can't say negativity wouldn't happen from it all I can say is when you have people who love their school they're not giving it up without a fight," she said.

"The fact that there is so much going on we have to stay positive and say there has to be some good that comes from that. On our campus we don't talk about it. There's so much hearsay out there and negativity that has come about that if you focus on that you will get so much wrong information."

The Claremont campus has kept fairly quiet over the chaos surrounding the sale, Valle said.

"I personally, since it very first started I have not heard anything said on campus," she said. "The reason is because we trust our administration. If we didn't trust our administration then I think we'd be worried or scared or upset."

Dalel Snider, of Upland, has two sons enrolled at Western Christian High School and plans to transfer them to the Upland Christian campus in Upland in the fall.

"They came from a very different environment, they lived with their dad in Mexico and were failing school," Snider said. "It was not as soon as they moved to Western, but it changed in about a year. Their progress has been tremendous."

Snider said her oldest son went from a 2.0 grade point average to 3.3.

"It's been hard for them they're whole lives especially my youngest. He's been in a different school every year and this is the first time he feels self confident, that he is accomplishing a lot of his goals and he has been part of the team," Snider said. "That makes him feel a lot better."

One of her sons was the first to be baptized at the school since the 1920s, she said.

"I see a lot of good things because of my kids. I have seen the transition in their lives, the impact of their school, they are treated with respect they really give them the values and love they need," Snider said. "I think that is exactly what Western is giving them, the opportunity to become good honest men in these difficult times."