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The Harbor Church © 2012. All Rights Reserved.
Contact Us Today!
We believe the character of the school is to reflect Christ in attitude, actions and speech and in all things conducting ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel.
We believe that education is the process of instilling God’s truth in our students and guiding them into the application of that truth in their personal lives. We believe in pursuing academic excellence in all areas with Biblical truth as the foundation of all learning – developing critical thinkers and problem solvers who demonstrate intellect while understanding and communicating God’s truth.
We believe that truth and reality are revealed through Jesus Christ, the Living Word, and the Bible, the written Word. This divine record contains clearly defined goals and priorities for life and teaches the proper relationships between family, church and school and must be integrated into the educational program of our school.
Harbor Church, first founded in 1957, was located in Harbor City. In 1964, pastor Robert Pruett was invited to be the Senior Pastor. After several years, he moved the church to its current location, building the sanctuary as it stands today. Over time the church slowly purchased the surrounding buildings including eight homes and two apartment buildings.He was able to pave the backyard, thus creating our basketball playground. In 1998, that apartment building’s ownership was transferred to The Harbor Church. The elementary/junior high building was apartments purchased specifically to have a school.
In the mid 1970’s our preschool was started with an emphasis on day care with Mrs. Clarice Jepsen, as the Director. In 1978 the Assemblies of God asked Pastor Pruett to take over a high school in Downey, Ambassador High School. The name was changed to Pacifica Christian and moved to Norwalk, with Becky Wood, Harbor Church’s current Music Leader, as principal. After running for several years, it closed down with job offers to David Hoffman and his son-in-law, John Reynolds, a teacher there at the time, to come to Lomita. John became the youth pastor here. John’s heart was teaching so in 1980, merging together ministry and high school; he started the Pacifica School of Discipleship to train students in the youth group for ministry. Twelve students were chosen through a selective application process. They did individual study with life packs for the next four years. Our own Mark Pritchett attended this program from 1981 until 1984. When John Reynolds resigned from the church, the school was closed.
Meanwhile, adopting the name Pacifica Christian Schools, Mrs. Jepsen, the preschool director, slowly started adding lower grades eventually going to 6th grade. As the school grew, Taryn Burgess, the kindergarten teacher, was brought on as Preschool Director and Mrs. Jepsen became the elementary principal. During her time, in 1981, we became members of the Association of Christian Schools, Int. (ACSI) and started participating in the Spelling Bee and Speech Meet. With Mrs. Jepsen leaving due to her health, her son, Jeff Jepsen took over as principal for two years. While Mr. Jepsen was here, the name was officially changed to Harbor Church Schools. Connecting with the children’s pastor, Mark Pritchett, Summer At The Harbor (SATH) was developed for our students during summer time with Lori Cordischi at the helm. As he moved on, Mrs. Burgess added the title of Principal to her name for two years. A junior high was started with a 7th / 8th combination class with Mrs. Bowman as the teacher. Mr. Forest Brown (a public school principal for over 20 years), next in line for two years, brought the school to the next professional level making sure all our policies and procedures were put into a handbook. After his first year, he dropped the 6th – 8th grades going only to 5th grade. Mrs. Turner, Preschool Director, was hired in 1987, first as the 4’s teacher’s aide. Quickly moving to a co-teacher; she then became our Preschool Director and 4’s teacher in 1999. Within a year of Mrs. Bowman starting as principal in 1998, the junior high was brought back. HCS has hit its top enrollment number of 220 with the largest preschool attendance. We have also added on other ACSI events including hosting the Math Olympics, Creative Writing and Junior High Speech Meet.