A Passion for Education
Growing up, my parents’ emphasis was always on the authority of God's Word -- same with education. They made that a priority in our lives by sending us to Christian schools. One of the most important decisions a parent can make for their children is the type of education or school they are going to send their children to. It was not long after I had my daughter that we thought, “What are we going to do? Where are we going to send her to school for the first five years of her life?” We went around and looked at different schools, and we were asking people just trying to find a school that we felt really stood on the authority of God's Word. During that time, we had played around with the idea of what would it take to start a Christian School in this area.
The Desire to Start a School
The Lord brought people into our lives that had the same desire, so I remember having a conversation with Bodie, my husband, about the school. We prayed together, and he said, “You have my full support whatever you need. I will do the best of my ability to be able to give you what you need.”
I think that I was a little bit naïve because I didn't know how much it was going to take to start a school. I look back -- you know hindsight's 2020 -- and I wonder “What were we thinking?” We were crazy with everything we had going on around us.
Health Problems Cause a Setback
In November 2015, my husband started having some back pain, so he went to all kinds of doctors to figure out what it was. Over the week, it gradually got worse. He got so bad that he went back to the emergency room and was very adamant that they check his heart. At the time they checked his heart, he was in the middle of having a massive heart attack.
When I saw him at the hospital again, I first thought he was gone. I just kept staring at him, and then I saw a little movement and realized he was still with us.
A Seemingly Impossible Task
I felt pulled in so many different directions. I was working a full-time job, I was an interim administrator of a school, and I had my family to take care of, as well as my husband with a lot of health issues.
Renee Hodge
It was a very busy time in my life. I was bogged down so much. I felt pulled in so many different directions. I was working a full-time job, I was an interim administrator of a school, and I had my family to take care of, as well as my husband with a lot of health issues. I had four small kids at that point too. There were nights when I worked so late that I would come home after my kids were already in bed.
Bodie came home the weekend from having his defibrillator implanted and started having his heart attack-like symptoms again. This happened at the end of February right before we had a meeting at the end of March about starting the school. I had a thought in the back of my head: “How are we going to do this with Bodie’s health problems?”
With all of that, we launched the school in August of 2017 with kindergarten through seventh grade with 18 kids.
Moving Forward with the School
One big problem was we couldn't find an administrator, so I said, “Okay, I'll just stay on as interim administrator until we find someone.” Our goal was never to be the ones in charge of the school. We wanted to help start the school but hire an administrator.
As we were heading into our second year of school, we still couldn't find a school administrator. The question came up: “Well, Renee, what about you?” I was the ideal candidate, but the problem was I didn't have the degree to be an administrator.
The problem was I didn't have the degree to be an administrator. I was going to have to go back and get my master's in educational leadership.
Renee Hodge
I was going to have to go back and get my master's in educational leadership. I looked at a couple of schools that are out there for the program, but my mind kept coming back to SCOPE through Bob Jones University because of the biblical worldview. I wanted to know the information and apply it to my school. I wanted to take the school to the next level.
Earning My Master’s Degree Through SCOPE
It took a lot of late nights, early mornings, and sometimes weekends to work on my school studies while trying to run and build a school.
My favorite part of the SCOPE program was not just the content. The SCOPE program taught me how to be a good leader. Not just any leader, but a leader based on the example of Christ's life. I loved how they always took us back to the Bible to look at the example of Christ. We should use that to then turn and be leaders to our staff and be the people that God wants us to be.