WAYNESBORO – Damascus Road Christian Academy is opening up for the 2025-26 school year in Waynesboro, filling in a large stretch of land without any Christian schools, its founders say.
Five minutes east of Waynesboro proper, Damascus Road Christian Academy is a private school currently serving 14 students ranging from pre-K to eighth grade.
According to founder Haley Reynolds and the executive director, Carl Fulmor, the number one thing that makes their school stand out is its location. Fulmor had this to say: “For the greater Waynesboro area, right now if they want a private Christian school instruction, they’ve got to go north to Chambersburg, 30 minutes, south to Hagerstown, 30 minutes, or Frederick or Martinsburg. We want to make sure that we are an option for this area.”
The school itself is located in the Church of the Apostles at 336 Barnett Ave.
The instructional model is their next most interesting thing, said Reynolds. The model in place should “help us to tailor our instruction to the individual student as much as possible, to try to hit the needs that might have been missed before.”
Bible instructor Fulmor described the model like this: “It’s a hybrid; it’s not all screen time, and it’s not all the teacher up there lecturing. It’s a lesson that the student can watch at their pace. If they have questions, the teacher will be in the classroom to be able to assist them one-on-one.
“We’re looking to be an alternative to the public school system… and having the local option we believe will be a benefit not only to our immediate surroundings but also for those around us. We’re all working for the same Kingdom; we just all have our own niche, and I think that’s needed.”
Waynesboro Area Public Schools will provide free transportation to the school for any students who live in Pennsylvania, and Damascus Road will provide before- and after-school care for students whose parents work beyond school hours.
“We recognize parents have responsibilities, so if they have to drop their kids off early or pick them up late, we can accommodate that. The school day goes from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., but we are trying to offer before-care starting at 7 a.m. and after-school care until 5:30 p.m.”
Students will also have the option of getting lunch there if they don’t bring their own.
There is no strict deadline for when students can apply for admission. Interested families are welcome to tour the campus.
As they receive no funding from the state or local governments, most of their funding comes from tuition and donations. Reynolds noted, “Our goal is to have (parents) pay as little extra as possible, so what we have right now is we’ve got Amazon wishlists out on social media. If anybody feels led to contribute, we have a list of things they could provide to help us out…”
Tuition information can be found on their website, along with more information on the founders and curriculum. Their back to school night is on Aug. 15, and the first day will be Aug. 20.
Reynolds attended Waynesboro public schools and graduated from Shippensburg University with a bachelor’s degree in education. She started teaching full time in 2017, teaching in Christian schools. She had the idea to found her own school after realizing how difficult it can be to drive both her and her sons to and from schools that were over 30 minutes away.
Fulmor was enlisted with the army for 22 years, and worked as an IT trainer with the federal government for a further 26 years. In his retirement, he also pastors two churches in Sabillasville in addition to teaching the Bible at Damascus Road Christian Academy.
“We want to make sure that kids feel welcomed, feel loved, feel cared for, know that their teachers are going home and thinking about ‘How can we help them tomorrow’. I don’t want them to question that they feel loved, that they belong here.”
