It was just over a decade ago that word got out about a new private school being planned for the west side of I-75 in Locust Grove. About a year and a half after those initial announcements, Strong Rock Christian School opened in the fall of 2007.

  For many Henry County residents, that may not seem like a very long time. For at least a half-dozen students in particular, it has been almost their entire lives.

  Six members of the current senior class at Strong Rock were students in one of the two kindergarten classes that first year: Ruth Banks, Avery Foster, Micah Kilgore, Ethan Roberts, Madison Walton and Aubree Wimberly. They are the first students to go all the way through from kindergarten to high school graduation at the school.

  Most of them spent that first year in the classroom of Shelley Woodmansee, who still teaches kindergarten at Strong Rock (there are now four kindergarten classes). She has a unique perspective among her fellow teachers in that every grade level at the school has some of her former students.

  After about 10 years as a teacher in Fayette and Henry counties, she heard about Strong Rock from a family friend. As she had a child of her own entering preschool at the time, it seemed like a good time to make a move.

  “It was definitely worth it,” she said. “I love what I do. I love that the families are very involved and we can work with the kids and meet them where they need to be. It is easier to partner with them in the environment we are in. That partnership is a huge part for me as a teacher.”

  Three of the students among the six mentioned earlier told the Times about the closeness they feel in a school with nearly 900 students, and their parents echoed those sentiments.

    Staci Wimberly, Aubree’s mother, toured the campus when it was still under construction and has liked everything it has had to offer.

  “It’s a rigorous curriculum. She has always been academically challenged there and it has been good for her,” she said about her daughter’s experience.

  “Everybody kind of knows each other,” said Aubree. “All of the teachers care for us. A lot of the teachers I have there now I have known since elementary school.”

  Erin Walton knew when Madison was about to start kindergarten, and since the family already lived in Locust Grove it seemed liked “the new school down the street,” as she put it, was going to be the best option. Another recommendation came from one of Madison’s grandparents, who was a retired Clayton County principal and knew the SRCS principal at the time.

  “Once she finished kindergarten, we knew that was where she needed to be,” said Erin, whose husband turned down several job opportunities with his employer that would have required relocation. Once their daughter graduates, they will be moving to Florida.

  “There’s been some sacrifice on our part but the only option was to keep her there,” she said. “They’re not just a school; they’re our family now.”

  Madison has enjoyed what the school offered as well as the opportunity to experience it with many of the same friends all the way through.

  “We’ve grown up together and been through a lot of different things together,” she said. “I really liked it. I didn’t expect it to be what it is today. But it’s really a great school and I’m glad I’ve been able to attend the past 13 years.”

  Micah Kilgore’s parents liked it enough that they commuted from their home on Lake Spivey in the Stockbridge/Jonesboro area his entire time in school – a trip that was relatively long to begin with but has likely gotten more challenging as Henry County traffic increased over the years.

  “They looked at a lot of schools before deciding,” Micah said about his parents. “We’ve never wanted to go anywhere else.”

  While he recognizes what some might consider limitations from being around the same relatively small core group of students for 13 years, he said making and keeping friends over more than a decade has a definite upside. “The relationships I have now are pretty deep.”

  All three of these students have said that there was nothing they felt like they missed out on or that the school didn’t offer to meet their needs and desires. All have been active in a variety of extracurricular activities throughout middle school and high school.

  Woodmansee did something with that first group of students that she has not done with any of her other classes. She gave each student an envelope with instructions not to open it until high school graduation. No one knows if the ones who left Strong Rock along the way still have those, but at least some of the students still at the school do.

  “That’s kind of a special group, to be the first ones to go all the way,” said Woodmansee, who back then was already thinking about some of those young people finishing school where they started, as their parents were already doing.

  The kindergarten group that first year, with 26 children overall, has grown to a senior class of 55. Overall, the school has seen an enrollment increased nearly every year of its existence. But the closeness and family atmosphere through the years has remained, according to the parents.

  “It’s very much that way,” said Woodmansee, whose name badge reads “blessed to be a blessing” as do those of her coworkers. “I’ve heard parents say as they walk through the doors that they feel the difference. It’s just a great, great place.”