A Message From the School Board Chair
Dear TFA Family,
I pray you and your family are having a wonderful year and are looking forward to the upcoming 2025-2026 school year. Around this time every year, I have the privilege of sharing a few highlights from the current season at The First Academy, where dedication to a Gospel-centered mission continues to drive our success and growth.
These are exciting days at TFA, and I want to share a few of my favorite highlights with you:
America The Beautiful: This year, we welcomed our largest-ever crowd to our Veterans and Grandparents Day event. The production team at First Orlando estimated that over 2,200 guests joined us for this incredible celebration.
Service Before Self: Our students have a passion for serving. This calendar year, they’ve raised a record $145,000 for the Arnold Palmer Children’s Hospital, delivered hundreds of food baskets to needy families, provided over 50,000 essential items for the Crisis Pregnancy Center, and completed over 35,000 service hours.
Biblical Worldview Training: At TFA, Biblical Worldview training is central to what we do and who we are. We are proud to have 13 faculty and staff members who are Commissioned Colson Fellows and five who are training to complete the program this school year. To learn more about The Colson Center and Colson Fellows, you can visit their website at www.colsonfellows.org.
A Growing Family: We were blessed with our largest enrollment in school history this year and early projections from the Admissions Team say we’re on track for a banner year next year! What a joy to live out our school year theme of “Worship” with terrific students across all of our academic divisions. The practice of worship (corporate and personal) is an essential characteristic of a flourishing disciple.
New K-16 Initiative: After years of planning, Orlando Christian University was launched and is now recognized by the Florida Department of Education as a degree-granting institution of higher learning. This past year, over 280 students received concurrent college credit at TFA for free! Additionally, our inaugural class of adult learners began this September at First Orlando. Our vision is to be a leading innovator in Christian higher education.
As the School Board Chair, I’m privileged to guide our board in making thoughtful, long-term decisions that uphold TFA’s mission, safeguard our resources, and support our vision for future generations. We intentionally and strategically do not involve ourselves in the school’s administrative/operational matters but rather focus our efforts on the future and supporting the Head of School and Leadership Team in achieving the Strategic Plan.
Our goal for the 2025-2026 school year is to continue attracting and supporting Florida’s top teaching talent, as well as ensuring they have competitive compensation and robust benefits. The Florida School Choice Scholarships have allowed TFA families to enjoy some of the most reasonable tuition rates among our K-12 FCIS-accredited schools in Orlando.
We are thrilled to see enrollment for 2025-2026 progressing strongly and once again expect classes to reach full capacity with wait pools to follow across divisions. We deeply value the partnership we share with each family as we work together to raise up the next generation of Christian leaders.
Thank you for spreading the word about TFA’s enrollment for 2025-2026 and beyond. And thank you for allowing us to serve your family.
The best is yet to come,
Clark Keator
School Board Chairman