A Covenant to lead

By NATE HUBBARD/Staff

Covenant Christian Academy was looking for a new administrator this summer.
Instead they got Mike Whitaker: preacher, computer guru, Arabian horse breeder, teacher, and, yes, school leader.
Whitaker, 64, a longtime Pulaski County resident, joined the Max Meadows school in September, bringing with him an abundance of energy to go along with his educational and religious acumen.
After “retiring” in 2007 – with Whitaker the word means having only three jobs instead of four – the Covenant board of directors enticed him back into the education field this summer.
“I’d been sitting around the house for two years, been a good house husband,” Whitaker said.
The new administrator said the school’s close-knit atmosphere and the fact that it is independent from any direct church oversight made the position an attractive one.
“I like that – that’s the only reason I came because it was independent,” he said. “I didn’t want to have to get into theological debates with any churches.”
Whitaker grew up in Indiana and has lived in six states, although he’s resided in Pulaski County continuously since 1982.
Prior to moving to Virginia permanently, he led a Christian school in Berea, Ky., in the early 1980s. Locally, he taught all varieties of computer classes at New River Community College and Pulaski County High School for a combined two and a half decades before his 2007 retirement.
Those computer skills have come in handy as Covenant now has a resident computer technician whenever Whitaker is at the school.
“I’ve been doing all the repairs,” he said with a laugh.
Even though he added a new job to his plate last month, Whitaker hasn’t dropped any of his other occupations.
For nearly 30 years, he’s owned and operated Customized Computers in Pulaski County, and when he’s not tinkering with computers he can often be found in the barn, helping his wife, Gaye, with the couple’s horse breeding business, Cross Over W Arabians.
“Why Arabians? They’re smarter than they’re owners,” he said. “They are. And they’re real beautiful animals.”
Whitaker said he’s usually up by 5 a.m. for a 45-minute pre-dawn workout before mucking out a few stalls and heading to Covenant.
His weekends aren’t any more relaxing as he also pastors Level Green Christian Church in Newport, a small Church of Christ congregation active since 1836 in the mountains of eastern Giles County.
Somewhere in there, Whitaker also built his home in Pulaski.
“I drove every nail,” he said.
Whitaker’s high-energy work ethic carries over to the school day.
“My days go by just like that. Click, click, click, which is good,” he said.
In addition to revving up the school’s technology, Whitaker said he’s committed to bringing a teacher’s eye to his leadership of Covenant.
“I’m very teacher-oriented since I taught for so many years,” he said.
While he was a part of the public school system for years, Whitaker said he prefers the independence of working in a Christian school.
“You can’t get this kind of education in a public school – you can quote me on that,” he said.
“I was in public education,” he continued. “I was in the battle in Kentucky to keep Christian schools free of state governing. I was in that battle for eight months. … When churches come in and they ask us: why should we send our kids here? We say because they can learn values and absolutes. They can learn right from wrong, black from white, and those things they cannot teach in general education. That’s a big plus.”
Although Covenant hopes to grow its pre-K through 12 enrollment from its current 37 students to 50 by the start of the 2010-11 school year, Whitaker said he’ll make sure the school doesn’t lose its sense of community as it grows.
“We have prayers every morning with the teachers before we go to work,” he said. “I go out and greet every parent and I greet every student every day and take them out to their car every night, make sure the parents know I’m there. … It’s a real close camaraderie and we’re going to get closer.”
So far, Whitaker said he doesn’t have any big changes in mind for the school. Having been on the job less than a month, he said he’s still getting familiar with Covenant’s inner workings and its distinctive Christ-centered, classical curriculum.
The school teaches courses all the way through high school in a three-stage program known as the “trivium.”
According to the school’s handbook, instruction is broken down into three levels: the grammar stage of knowledge for elementary students, the logic stage of understanding for grades 6-8 and the rhetoric stage of wisdom for high schoolers.
Whitaker said he’s developed a PowerPoint presentation on the academy’s unique features and hopes to visit churches in the area on Sunday nights to tout the benefits of the school. To schedule a visit from Whitaker, contact him at 540-320-4892.
Although the school has cycled through administrators since its founding in 2002, Whitaker said he’s committed to stabilizing the school’s leadership.
“I’m here for the long haul,” he said.
The school’s financial independence is its calling card, but with the down economy, Whitaker said Covenant hit a few rough patches.
But those, he said, are in the past.
“We now have everything stable,” he said. “We’ve got an administrator in place, scholarships are in place. We’re a very stable organization. We’re going to make it. They had a rumor at one time that we’re going to close – we’re not going to close.”
Not with Whitaker at the helm.
A horseman-reverend-programmer-principal doesn’t quit.
Nate Hubbard can be reached at 228-6611 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).