WALLACE — Seeds of faith are being planted in the Duplin County soil once again as members of Poston Baptist Church and supporters of its school look toward the future and a $1.2 million building that will, when complete, allow for the acceptance of sixth-graders by the 2026-27 school year.
The school, which now houses Pre-K through fifth-grade, and its supporters broke ground for the new 11,000-square-foot middle school on April 30, a day of hope, Wallace Christian Academy headmaster Steve Le Roux, for continued growth that has seen student numbers rise from 30 in its first year to 110 today, with 160 enrolled for the 2025-26 academic year.
“God has certainly blessed us,” Le Roux attested during a interview last week about the school’s growth and plans for the middle school.
Those blessings include a donation back in the 1970s of some 16 acres of land that will allow for the middle school and, eventually, he said, a gym, cafeteria and ball fields.
“God’s hand has been on this school,” Le Roux continued, pointing to the student growth year over year and the fact that the elementary school was fully paid for before they entered this next phase of construction.
School supporters and church members entered this academic venture with their trust firmly placed in God’s will, not knowing, Le Roux said, “where this was going to go.”
It started in January 2021 when Poston Baptist minister Chris Jarman shared the vision to start a school one Sunday morning. “He just told them to start praying about it,” Le Roux said.
Prayers were lifted, and they continued, with the congregation voting a few weeks later in favor of taking that leap of faith. Eventually a committee was formed and a two-year preparation time began. In that first year, ground work began, along with the remodeling and construction needed to get a school under way. That worked turned into a six-classroom school which opened its doors in August 2022.
Le Roux said the committee visited a lot of Christian academies, including Mintz in Sampson County.
In 2022, the first students were welcomed. In the first year there were 30 students. In year two, it grew to a 70-member student body and this year, 2024-25, the number rose to 110. “That’s growing about 40 or 50 students a year. We’ve enrolled 160 for 2025-26 and we expect, pray, that we will grow again in the year after.”
This year, WCA boasted 19 full-time and five part-time teachers. That number will grow to a total 28 instructors in the next school year.
“We’ve been very fortunate, very blessed,” Le Roux reiterated.
Those blessings include the fact that they’ve already raised $220,000 of the money they will need for the middle school. Next up, he said, will be securing the $150,000 needed for the school’s plumbing and pad.
“One step at a time,” Le Roux stressed. “So far, we’ve seen the donations come in that are making this dream a reality.”
As they work toward the middle school and continue to spread the word about the offerings at WCA, Le Roux said they will have one eye firmly fixed on growing the school, first to include sixth grade, then seventh, then eighth and then a high school.
“We plan to keep going one year at a time,” he said.
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