School Shepherd Award Nominations
Posted on November 21, 2016 by
Mark Muehl
-
Christian Leadership
National Lutheran School Accreditation (NLSA) encourages and recognizes Lutheran schools that provide quality Christian education and engage in continuous improvement. NLSA facilitates Lutheran schools in evaluating their academic quality and the spiritual dimension of the school. Academic quality is determined by the school doing a rigorous self-study in which the school measures itself against nearly two hundred standards covering all phases of a school’s operation. A team of educators from other schools visit the school to validate the self-study and create a report that includes the school’s strengths and also areas for improvement. All TLSP schools are accredited with NLSA.This year, for the first time, the visiting teams were asked to observe the pastor’s relationship with the school and consider if he should be nominated for The School Shepherd Award. In an interview for the Reporter online, Terry Schmidt, director of LCMS School Ministry explains, “The new School Shepherd Award--which will be given annually--’honors a faithful pastor who provides outstanding encouragement, support, and service to his school.” Eleven LCMS pastors across the country were nominated for this year’s inaugural award. “All are considered champions for their schools,” Schmidt says, because they “go beyond in supporting and caring for the school, its workers, and the whole school community.” Two of the elven pastors nominated for The School Shepherd Award are in The Lutheran Schools Partnership: Rev. John Stube serving Ascension Lutheran School and Rev. Thomas Eggold, serving Emmanuel-St. Michael (ESM) Lutheran School.