Long Road to Partnership

Illinois rival schools unite under one mission, one vision to form River Valley Christian School

By Bella Agnello

VIDEO ABOVE: The new River Valley Christian School opens in Elgin, Illinois, in August. The new school, a merger of Westminster Christian School and Harvest Christian Academy, released this promotional video to announce its name this past October.

Twenty years of coexisting

Randall Road extends for 31.4 miles. On a four-mile stretch in Elgin, Illinois, are crammed four churches and two private Christian schools. They share the same faith, but for a long time Harvest Christian Academy and Westminster Christian School lacked a shared vision.

Now, two schools with varied and rival pasts, are in the final stages of a merger and a new beginning in August. But for 20 years, HCA and WCS were rivals.

“What were we communicating to the Elgin community?” one parent, Lauren Soules, wondered. “We can’t get along, so we’re just going to have two separate schools. I don’t think the way that we handled that on either side really represented Christ well.”

Westminster Presbyterian Church established a Pre-K through 12 school in 1978. Randall Road’s newest addition sprang up in 2004 when Harvest Bible Chapel — a Chicago-area megachurch with multiple campuses worldwide — launched HCA, the community’s second private Pre-K through 12 school.

At the time, many WCS employees and families wondered, “What’s going to happen to Westminster?” and set to work improving their programs. Rick Palmer joined the staff in 2006 as the athletic director who would save the school.

Palmer grew the athletic program, adding bowling, boys volleyball and softball. In his fifth year on staff, he started the school’s first football team.

“I really thought that was the one sport that would really catapult us into being a very significant and established high school,” Palmer said, who stepped down as AD in 2018.

Three minutes down the road, Dave Lockwood did the same thing at HCA. Rather than perceiving one another as a threat, the athletic directors consulted each other’s creativity and competitiveness to strengthen their own programs. Lockwood called this, “Iron sharpening iron.”

“Our goal was to make Harvest and Westminster a rival,” Palmer said. “There were some really good battles during those years.”

The two shared notes and insights to help their teams perform at their highest potential. Eventually, their conversations turned toward dreaming about the future: What if Westminster and Harvest formed a partnership?

“What a powerhouse we would have, athletically,” Palmer said. “School-wise, we would be the only Christ-centered school in the Fox Valley area.”

In 2015, discussions of a merger began. Included in the conversation were Palmer, WCS’s then-Head of School Pat Bertsche, Lockwood — who has since left HCA — the Harvest Bible Chapel elders and then-Senior Pastor of HBC James MacDonald. Though they pushed for an equal partnership, MacDonald made it clear he planned to engulf WCS to establish HCA as the top school in Elgin.

Palmer said, “I felt like we were bullied.”

Palmer and Bertsche walked away saddened but had greater confidence to continue establishing WCS as a strong Christian school. Still, they held onto the hope that this was not a closed door for a future partnership under new leadership.

The older brother and the little brother

From that moment on, MacDonald took the rivalry beyond athletics. One online video caught MacDonald bashing WCS to an auditorium of HCA students.

“Like, why do they even have a school?” MacDonald said. “They should come over here and we should have them in a different hallway. It’s like the B school.”

When MacDonald’s comment reached WCS families, many were shocked, hurt and angry.

“Our grades and our testing is actually rather high,” Lauren Soules said. “I do think that it created a perspective of Harvest — that wasn’t everybody’s perspective at Harvest, but I think people just assumed that’s how Harvest thought about us, and it didn’t create a very friendly, neighborly relationship.”

MacDonald’s stances made an effect on some of the staff and faculty. Matt Soules, a former head track coach at WCS, once tried to make friends with HCA’s head coach only to discover how deep the rivalry truly went.

“To say that I got the cold shoulder is such an understatement. The disdain was palpable that I received from him,” Matt Soules said. “From then on out, it was kind of awkward. It was a very different relationship than I had with any of the other coaches.”

More stories about HCA’s unneighborliness came out, and pride ran rampant in the community.

“Pride is so sneaky. You could be proud that you’re different, but then you’re just as prideful, just in the opposite way — it’s a humble pride,” Matt Soules said. “I think that’s where Westminster faltered.”

WCS took on the role of “little brother,” assuming a passive aggressive nature toward HCA.

“[Westminster] failed at going over and creating a relationship,” Lauren Soules said. “I didn’t see any leadership going above and beyond, trying to mend any sort of discord.”

For a decade, rumors and stories circulated about both schools, taking the unspoken rivalry further and further.

A wave of transitions

Though the schools’ performances and enrollment ebbed and flowed, they continued to compete athletically and academically. At times, families went back and forth between the schools. Being so close to one another made it easy for families to send one student to one school for heightened academic help and their sibling to the other school for athletic opportunities. Other times, families switched schools because of church hurt.

In 2018, a letter from 2013, written by former elders, resurfaced, charging MacDonald with
“self-promotion … love of money … domineering and bullying … abusive speech … outbursts of anger … [and] making misleading statements.”

In 2019, MacDonald was disqualified by the elder board for manipulation and financial abuse. He left the church and school in $40 million in debt.

Two years later, Jeff Bucknam stepped in as Harvest Bible Chapel’s new lead pastor. He brought a wave of leadership and financial transitions that permanently shaped the Harvest community, bringing fresh revival to the church.

Despite the progress, the church was still drowning in debt. Acts 2 Network — a Korean-run ministry for college students and youth around the country — swooped in to pay rent to HBC, supporting them financially. Some of their students have since enrolled at HCA as well.

In September 2025, Acts 2 Network bought Harvest’s Elgin location for $24.5 million in cash to cancel the church’s debt, now allowing the church and school to rent from them. The campus, attached to the church, functions as their new training center. They are limiting the school’s use of the gym to use it for their own training purposes, so the school rents a gym at a nearby recreational center.

WCS also made changes in its relationship with Westminster Presbyterian Church. The church, according to Matt Soules, made arbitrary demands on the school regarding use of the sanctuary and the church’s sound equipment.

“It flabbergasted me how they weren’t partners in it,” Matt Soules said. “They weren’t like, ‘Hey, we’re each other’s ride or die.’ It was just very contrarian.”

In 2023, WCS became a 501©(3) nonprofit to stop functioning “under the thumb” of the church, as Palmer stated.

Despite positive steps forward, both schools struggled financially. WCS struggled to cast a vision that promoted school pride. Decreased enrollment and constant leadership changes challenged their stability. HCA, still governed by the church elder board, struggled to have their academic needs met and still suffered under the financial instability brought on by MacDonald.

Clearly, something needed to change.

Though David Johnson started teaching at WCS after COVID, he knew something needed to happen to secure the future of the school.

Johnson said, “I always felt like there was a bigger change coming.”

A long-overdue partnership

On March 6, 2025, at 3:20 pm, HCA and WCS each gathered their faculty and staff to announce the merger before releasing the news in an email to parents later that afternoon. They are operating under their own names during the 2025–2026 school year but have some overlap with classes and extracurriculars. They will officially become River Valley Christian in the fall of 2026.

The decision came after a long year of prayer and strategic conversations between the schools’ leadership teams. In 2024, HBC elders rekindled conversations with the WCS school board about merging, this time proposing an equal partnership where the church would fully separate from the school.

Though she missed much of the history between the schools, the news excited Emily Zange. As one of two teachers in both WCS’s science and math departments, she readily welcomed the change.

“I was really excited about the prospect of actually having a multi-person department where there’s more than just one-and-a-half of us in a department,” Zange said.

This merger also promised the end of transitions.

“My first year [teaching] was the 2019–2020 year which ended poorly with COVID,” Zange said. “There have been a lot of transitions my whole time teaching, so the thought of being able to combine and make a new school that’s a larger school comes with increased stability, and that is really, really appealing.”

Jesse Crognale has taught middle school history and Bible at HCA for 20 years. Throughout the years, rumors of a potential merger kept the idea in the back of his mind, but the official announcement shocked him.

“My initial thoughts were this mixed bag of emotions. Like, ‘Wait no, this can’t happen. What does this mean?’” Crognale said. “So many questions just came into my mind almost right away, like, ‘What is this going to look like for all these different details that we have to work out?’”

Without waiting for official introductions, Crognale and the rest of the HCA Bible department reached out to their WCS counterparts.

“We just said, ‘How are you guys? Who are you guys? What do you like? Let’s just talk a little bit,’” Crognale said. “One of the people from Westminster shared how long he’s been hoping for this to be able to happen. And it was just very moving to say, ‘Hey, we’re the body of Christ, let’s come together.”

In talking to them, Crognale found the teachers share similar desires for the new school.

“It’s just been so cool to talk to them and see where their hearts are,” Crognale said. “It hasn’t really been like a struggle because I think all the people involved — both schools and the teachers there — want the same thing, and that just made things so easy.”

The next day, the partnership was announced to the public in a press release and on social media. Palmer, now enjoying retirement, was exhilarated.

“I can’t even put it into words — man, I get choked up when I even talk about it,” Palmer exclaimed. “The Lord is so gracious and so forgiving. He brings in another Christian school next door, and we’re like, ‘Why couldn’t they have gone to the other side of Elgin?’ And all I kept saying is, ‘God’s got a plan,’ and he did, and that’s what’s so exciting about it.”

HCA alumna Alexa Pupich was scrolling on Instagram when she saw the announcement. At the time, she was in the process of interviewing with HCA to be a high school history teacher.

“That’s a little strange, because I remember us being rivals,” Pupich thought. “[It] has been long overdue to separate the church and the school, and if this was a path to that, [this] could be good. But is this still something I want to get on board with right now?”

Though many people warned against it citing the instability that would surely arise, Pupich resolved to teach at HCA during its final year.

“My perspective was just really open to the Lord’s will, and I have the luxury of doing that because I’m 22,” Pupich said. “So my mindset was, ‘I really would love to be at HCA for the last year and be able to be a part of that. If they don’t want me, I will find another job. But if they do, I’m coming back.’”

Pupich is HCA’s only returning high school history teacher for the fall. Her mentor, Amy Kananen, will retire at the end of the school year, leaving Pupich to figure out curriculum and relations with WCS’s history department.

The same foundation

Though WCS was a ministry of a Presbyterian church and HCA was attached to a nondenominational church, the schools share similar doctrines of faith.

Johnson is a high school Bible teacher at WCS. As he thought about what RVC’s statement of faith should include, he asked, How do we represent a broad mere Christianity within American Evangelicalism?

“Not everybody feels the same way or has the same opinion about eschatology or even the relationship between Genesis one and two and science and women in ministry,” Johnson said.

Not being attached to a church allows the statement of faith to be more dogmatic.

The engagement season

The 2024–2025 school year ended with several “touch points” between both schools. In the spring of 2025, both lower schools held an event where students could play, pray and eat popsicles together.

HCA Lower School Principal Noelle Hoffmeister smiled as she watched fourth graders waiting near a tree outside the playground, eager for the WCS students to arrive. When they came over the big hill from the road to the playground, the HCA students screamed, “There they are!”

“All the fourth graders sprinted to greet these kids — I could have cried,” Hoffmeister said. “This is a universal truth: it is always the kids that show us how to do it right. We’re the adults. We’re in charge of them, but it is always the kids that do it best: they forgive the best, they welcome the best.”

As the final normal school year came to a close, both schools wondered what other changes loomed on the horizon.

A project manager and various transition teams swooped in to organize and facilitate conversations that ensured unity across both schools: statements of faith, teaching philosophies, facilities and resources, curriculums, school board members and a head of school.

In June 2025, WCS’s Head of School Carlye Hay was named as the combined head of school. Since taking the position, she has had to overcome many obstacles from curriculum to culture.

With many decisions left to solidify, Hay is concerned about providing media personnel with premature information about the school’s progress. In March, she chose not to answer any questions for this story and requested teachers remain silent if asked to speak to media personnel.

When asked for an interview, one faculty member replied, “I understand from our head of school and board that we are unable to offer these types of interviews at this time.” Teachers interviewed for this story gave interviews before Hay’s all-staff email regarding interview requests.

Hay is HCA’s third head of school in four years. Undergoing many transitions in the last few years left Hoffmeister questioning the future, but the longer the year has gone on, the more she has learned to trust her new boss. She says throughout the transition, Hay has been “cool as a cucumber.”

“When someone inspires confidence in you, then you’re like, ‘OK, maybe this will be a good thing,’” Hoffmeister said.

Hay heads the new school board which consists of three former school board members from WCS and three former board members from HCA, now free from the leadership of the HBC elder board.

“This is a very positive change because unfortunately as a school, we were influenced a lot when things really went sour for the church,” Crognale said. “To have educational people in charge of important decisions for the school is a big plus.”

While many WCS coaches have secured head coach positions, HCA staff have filled the head positions for administration. And with a head of school coming from WCS, allowing HCA to have a significant voice in major decisions reveals a desire for equal partnership rather than a desire to emerge as the dominant school.

“I feel like Harvest and Westminster are engaged right now, and we’re planning the wedding,” Johnson said. “It feels like Harvest sometimes can be the bride and Westminster can be the groom. When it’s a really important matter, Harvest decides, and then every once in a while Westminster is given an insignificant decision to make just so they feel like they’re included. That sounds a little bit more divisive than it really was, but it was kind of fair [about] how decisions get made.”

Despite the discernment to make everyone feel included in the partnership, some staff acknowledge these decisions to be unfair at times.

“I don’t feel like our athletic teams did as well as they could’ve,” one staff member voiced regarding the decision to place WCS staff as head coaches. “We’re all like, ‘How do you give somebody with poor credentials a higher job than a coach who had better credentials? They just told the people who are currently on the coaching staff between the two schools to apply for the job. It was not open to the public at all, so that’s why a lot of the staff felt like it was already chosen.”

As with any relationship, both sides will have their grievances with one another and bring their own perspectives to the table. But both HCA and WCS need one another. Not only do both schools gain more financial stability, but they are able to combine their resources. WCS gave HCA access to a gym and fields, which are used during gym and practices. They also have a director of resources, who now oversees the learning programs for those with dyslexia, ADHD, PDD/NOS, autism, Aspergers Syndrome and vision and hearing impairment.

Likewise, HCA provides MAP testing, resources and elective offerings. For the first time in several years, WCS students can participate in band and take art labs in HCA’s Artist Academy.

A healthy approach to change

At the beginning of the year, faculty and staff from each school went through a book called “Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change.” The book teaches how to grieve what is being lost while celebrating the beginning of a new stage of life.

“Whether you want to admit it or not, there is something that’s not going to be there anymore,” Crognale said. “It’s good to go through that process. I didn’t even realize I needed that. I am an optimistic person, but I’m also sentimental — all my Harvest gear is not going to be around anymore.”

HCA staff and WCS staff went through the book separately to give themselves time to process the ending of their respective schools as they looked ahead to a combined community.

“Some of us have taught for 20 years together,” Crognale said. “Just to be able to talk with each other and be like, ‘I can’t believe we’re not Lions anymore’ — verbally processing that out has been really helpful.”

Though Zange has been on staff at WCS for the past four years, she too needed time to process the transition with the rest of her coworkers.

“I was just excited, but I think just the acknowledgement of grief and negative emotions is so healthy, and it’s not something that we always do well,” Zange said. “[Leadership has] been good throughout the whole process of recognizing that people are processing emotions even as we’re going through logistics.”

Then came time for the staff to meet each other. A shy person, Zange approached the event hesitantly.

“It was a little nerve-wracking to walk into a room, but it was also really exciting because I am teaching both Harvest and Westminster students this year,” Zange said. “So the ability to be in the same room with a lot of the people who are also caring for the students I now care about was really great.”

Throughout the year, departments from both campuses have been meeting together for in-service days to discuss course offerings, curriculum and textbooks for the following year. Some departments found it easy to merge their curriculums, but others are wrestling through major dissimilarities between curricula — one found that their counterpart did not have a curriculum to begin with at all. Through the smoother and more challenging meetings, Hoffmeister is encouraged to see the teachers coming together to care for their students well.

“Teachers are passionate people,” Hoffmeister said. “Part of the reason we do what we do is because we’re not apathetic about how kids are taught. And so the question is, can we have a strong opinion and express it professionally?”

The hope for all of these teachers is that these conversations pave the way for their students to have a well-rounded education.

One teacher said, “I want [RVC] to be a place for kids to come and learn more about God, love the Lord and get some academics along the way.”

Once teachers agree on their findings, they send a curriculum proposal to a curriculum team, which is composed of WCS and HCA teachers from lower school, middle school and high school.

Heather Pfister is one of the HCA teachers on the team. She is encouraged to see the progress the committee is making as well as the passion the teachers bring into these proposals.

“[We have] the ability to talk about our philosophies and realize how aligned we are,” Pfister said.

The committee looks at the spiritual framework, mission and pillars of RVC and funnels their academic framework through these. They sort through current curriculum to find overlaps, and when there are differences, they do their research to find the right curriculum that will heighten the already high standards for academics.

HCA’s Director of Early Education Kelly Burke cites both schools’ above average state-level testing as a solid foundation to keep improving their academic offerings.

“We’re held to a very high standard,” Burke said. “With the new school, that will only increase.”

Crunchy peanut butter

The transition was not smooth for everyone. Students and parents alike had their grievances and questions.

“I think [the merge] needed to happen because there were a lot of families on both sides of the fence that had ill-will feelings about each other,” Palmer said. “I think this is God coming in and saying, ‘Hey, this isn’t about you. It’s about serving kids and bringing them to me.’ That’s the beautiful thing about them coming together.”

HCA’s Upper School Principal Bob Young called this year “crunchy peanut butter.” It’s uncomfortable, hard and “nobody knows what’s going on.”

Students responded negatively to the change but were, nevertheless, thrust into the ring at the beginning of the school year. Some classes require busing students between buildings, where they attend classes with students from both campuses.

“That was a pretty big shock to them, so I think they felt a little blindsided and immediately got defensive and complained about their building and their teachers,” Pupich said. “[They said,] ‘The kids over there are weird, and I don’t want to be forced to do things with them.’”

Zange is one of the first teachers to teach WCS and HCA students and plays an immediate role in helping students from both campuses come to terms with the transition. She made her students pull from a deck of cards to figure out where they would be sitting each day. When a student was placed next to a student from the other school, they would voice their uncomfortability.

“That was kind of discouraging, but that’s just because all humans are so resistant to change that they really want to be comfortable with their friends,” Zange said.

In September, WCS students joined HCA students on their sixth grade trip to Camp Timberlee in Wisconsin. Crognale, who oversees much of this three-day trip, tried to encourage his students to socialize.

“Initially they were not sure how to relate to the Westminster kids. Then by the end of the week, they were like, ‘Oh my gosh, so-and-so likes so-and-so, and they’re from different schools!’ And I’m like, ‘OK, I don’t know if you need that much mixing, but I’m glad you guys are getting to know each other,’” Crognale said with a laugh.

One of the biggest testing periods for the students came during Homecoming. Because IHSA mandated that the athletic teams compete as Harvest-Westminster, students participated in combined events and rallies throughout the week.

“The students just didn’t really love the idea of that,” Pupich said. “It felt a little like ‘West Side Story.’”

A new sign went up in the gym to encourage unity among the teams while paying homage to HCA and WCS’s mascots: the Lions and the Warriors. The sign read, “Heart of a lion, strength of a warrior.” Despite leadership’s attempts to create unity, teachers were tasked with un-villianizing. Pupich, who grew up competing against WCS, needed to undo the rivalry in her own mind as well.

“It’s been really interesting trying to be a teacher and listen to students’ concerns, complaints and feelings and validate them, support them and redirect in a good way, and also have my own emotions, grieving things and trying to navigate how to empathize with them and also stand behind what the school is doing as someone who believes in what we’re doing,” Pupich said.

To everyone’s surprise, by the end of the week students wished their dances were combined. Many WCS students attended the HCA Homecoming dance to spend it with their friends.

“What’s interesting is that complaining almost always happened when collaboration was forced,” Pupich said. “You have to go to the same event. We have to have the same pep rally. When they’re not being told what to do, the students are actually doing pretty well in forming those cross-school relationships.”

Parents are taking the transition harder than their students. When asked for an interview, several refused to give their thoughts on the new school. Being removed from the immediate situation makes it difficult for them to see the positive progress their children are experiencing.

“I still know a lot of people are not very happy that the two schools came together, and when they tell me that I’m like, ‘Listen, this is the best thing that could happen to Elgin, Illinois,’” Palmer said. “You’re bringing two schools together that are faith-based, and they’ve got to show that this can be possible.”

Though her family moved several years ago, Lauren Soules stays connected to many WCS parents. She sees fear driving a lot of their concern.

“Some people [said], ‘I don’t want my kid to be a guinea pig in a new school. I want it to be something that’s solid and in place,’” Lauren Soules said. “I know a few families who have chosen to leave even before this year because of that reason.”

Being in this environment for the past 20 years, Pupich sees that the issue boils down to an unwillingness to get to know one another.

“We’ve been rivals with Westminster forever, and all of a sudden we’re supposed to be on the same team — and unexpectedly,” Pupich said. “For a lot of people, it felt pretty forced at the beginning.”

Some parents have started to question whether the leadership team has the best in mind for their students or if their end goal is to create a larger school. Hoffmeister has worked with parents long enough to know that their concerns will die down as they hear and process more information.

“The parents are doing what adults do, which is they hear noise, or they hear news, they freak out — they get in their own way,” Hoffmeister said. “At first it was a little us-versus-them, and now it’s become all the people versus the admin because they’re making the decisions. There’s always a bad guy, right?”

Many wondered where they would be next year. As administration waited to confirm their decision to move classes to the North Campus and sports practices to the South Campus, parents assumed the lack of communication was a lack of transparency.

From Pfister’s perspective, the lack of communication is a matter of protection as they tackle the unknown.

“[Carlye] said, ‘When we’re sure that we feel that this is the way the Lord is taking us, that’s when we announce it,’” Pfister said. “They don’t announce every idea because lots of doors get closed. She wants to build trust in our community and faith in our school. Because we don’t have all the answers, the hardest thing is to not be impatient.”

Administration is not tight-lipped about everything. The school board sets up times for HCA parents and WCS parents to ask the board questions. Leadership is then able to address their concerns, which still sometimes contain hints of prejudice.

“The whole mentality of Westminster being the B school was very much a part of the conversation,” Lauren Soules said. “One of the teachers was able to squash that pretty quickly and said, ‘Listen, Westminster has better scoring across the board, so how does that make them a B school?’ That alone was a beneficial thing for lots of families to hear, that [there isn’t] one superior school and one lowly school, that they’re actually very similar schools that are combining academically.”

Lauren Soules heard from current WCS parents that separate and combined Q+A sessions have diminished a lot of fears for most of the parents in the community.

“The people who had a bad attitude about it, [there] wasn’t really much that the schools could do to change that, and so they’ve left,” Lauren Soules said. “But the people who are on the fence were comforted through those meetings.”

Though parents are removed from seeing the direct impact the partnership has on teachers and students, their words play a significant impact on how their children perceive the changes happening around them.

“We told our families, ‘Your children will reflect what you say and do,’” Pfister said. “If some families do not think that this is going to fly and they’re not on board, then the students tend to feel the same way because that’s what they’re hearing from home.”

Teachers are encouraging parents to remember that God will always have his way even when people cannot immediately see the whole picture.

“The school belongs to the Lord — the kids belong to the Lord,” Pfister said. “If the Lord wants to flourish it, he will flourish it. And if he didn’t want this to move forward, he would have put a stop to it.”

Burke gets the unique position of being in administration and being the parent of an HCA high schooler and alumna. As she receives more information about the new school, she intentionally communicates to her girls that RVC will be filled with opportunity.

“It’s all to the glory of the Lord, if we are coming from the right perspective,” Burke said. “Our daughters have already fully accepted it — they’re already fully on board.”

Accepting change still comes with struggles. It takes a while to grieve the past, and Burke makes sure she helps her daughters process their feelings.

“Your identity was tied to a name and to a mascot, and that’s not a bad thing at all,” Burke tells her girls. “[It’s] validating that the history and the legacy that will live on with both schools is not lost. It’s cherished, and it will always be important.”

Current students are not the only ones learning to grieve healthily. Alumni need to process, too.

HCA excelled in fostering school pride under Marc Abbatacola, who served as the executive director of HCA from 2011 until his unexpected death in 2016. One of his most memorable sayings was, “Once a Lion, Always a Lion.”

Pupich said, “The concept of ‘Always a Lion’ has been really hard for me to think about, but the more that I think about it, the concept can still reign true when there are no more HCA Lions around.”

Pupich shed several tears as she recalled her first day of school in 2014. Preschoolers through high schoolers gathered in the auditorium to attend the first chapel of the year. Before preaching, Abbatacola played a slideshow of pictures that showed families on vacation around the world holding signs that read, “We Are Lions.”

“I think about the community and what the character of a lion meant to people,” Pupich said. “There was this aspect of a lion-pride in a family. Lions are united. Lions are of high character. Lions love the Lord, and they seek him with all that they do and strength comes with that. I think about those pictures a lot.”

Pupich treasures the past and knows the heart of what it means to be an HCA Lion never dies. With the start of something new on the horizon, she hopes alumni can hold onto the past while growing an excitement for what is to come.

“Marc Abbatacola modeled and set up what it means to be a Lion. The people that impacted and the identity we hold in that can go further than a school closing or a mascot change,” Pupich said. “I really hope that all of the alumni can understand that instead of feeling disregarded.

There is still an over-20-year legacy of what God did at Harvest — those things don’t have to end. They just look a little different.”

One school, two campuses

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Leadership is implementing small changes here and there to kill off the “other” language. The campuses are no longer called “Harvest” or “Westminster,” but the “North Campus” and “South Campus,” respectively. Once they announced the new name River Valley Christian in October, they set to work stirring up excitement for the new mascot.

Students participated in Mascot Madness: every day at lunch, they received a token to drop in a box representing each of the 16 prospective mascots. Once it got down to two — Ravens or Rams — students were interviewed and shared their guesses for who they thought would win.

On Monday, February 5, an official announcement revealed the mascot: the Rams.

Leadership released the new uniforms which are to be enforced next year, but students are already encouraged to wear the RVC colors, teal and yellow — a combination of HCA’s signature navy and gold and WCS’s blue and white. Pockets of students are already showing off the new school spirit.

One of Pfister’s 1st graders shocked her by wearing a teal T-shirt.

“I just about stopped him because he’s out of uniform,” Pfister said. “And then I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, you have on the new River Valley Christian logo and the color — that’s fantastic!’”

These official changes reveal what has already been happening under the surface all year long: slowly and steadily, the student body has been coming together to cultivate what the RVC culture will look like for years to come.

In one of Zange’s classes, one HCA student noticed a student from WCS was struggling with his work, and he explained the concepts to him. Over the course of the year, Zange saw them becoming good friends.

Zange also witnessed a reunion between friends. Two of her students attended Pre-K together before being separated across campuses. Now, they are in the same honors chemistry class.

Seniors, however, are wary to foster a developing school community they will never be part of.

“This year is probably the hardest in some ways because they don’t have to engage in the transition process like their peers do,” Zange said. “Before the school year started, one of the seniors [said], ‘I’m sick of hearing about the new school.’ They don’t really care about the new school because it’s not theirs.”

Zange is encouraged to see juniors taking the charge in creating the new culture. “There are some juniors who felt very called to step it up and lead,” Zange said.

Being an alumna opens the door for a lot of conversations between Pupich and her students. She has been around to see many of them grow up, and they treat her like an older sister. Because they freely share their experiences and thoughts with her, she has been able to see noticeable changes in them throughout the year.

“There is a lower level of complaining than there was in the fall, which shows growth and the Lord moving in their hearts to soften their views towards them,” Pupich said.

To 2026-2027 and beyond

Now, everyone is silently asking one question: Will we feel like a family?

“If I had to say why are people hesitant or why they do not feel positive about it, rather than this particular change, it’s just the idea that change is hard,” Crognale said. “I’ve been a Lion for 20 years, and I love that — holding on to that is special. Losing that is the part that’s hard. For those that decide to come back, I don’t feel like it’s going to be that much different.”

Despite not knowing salaries or how their roles will change, more than 95% of staff intend to return in the fall. Though some still have concerns, they are excited to return for the students.

“I’m going one year at a time,” one teacher said. “It has nothing to do with a merger. It has nothing to do with anything other than the Lord hasn’t released me, so I am here to help them merge and get everything underway.”

Parents are also wrestling with whether they will stay or leave. Some parents’ decisions solidified when tuition increased and scholarship opportunities decreased.

“One parent said that they’ll be homeschooling next year because they financially can’t swing the tuition change and the discount change,” Pfister said.

The new tuition schedule was released January 7, 2026, for returning and future families to consider.
However, most families are excited to return for the 2026–2027 school year, with about 80% of the current 780 students already re-enrolled. They are excited for the opportunities ahead and are ready to tackle issues as a community.

One aspect they are excited to figure out together is space. WCS’s space-sharing fees will expire after this school year. And though HCA is big enough to hold everyone, Acts2 only has space-sharing agreements with them through the 2029–2030 school year.

For now, they are making use of the time they have left in these buildings. In March, administration communicated to families that the gym will be painted the new RVC colors. Hay set up time for families to sit in the gym before repainting is done.

“We understand that this change may bring up a lot of emotions, especially within the Westminster community,” Hay said in an email. “Please know that we see you and respect the legacy of this space; we are committed to honoring the history and meaning it holds for so many.

“As these updates move forward, we want to create space for our community to reflect [for] anyone who would like to stop by, take it in and say goodbye.”

A bigger school also means more opportunities to grow already-existing extracurriculars. Crognale heads a middle school organization called “Do Something Club,” where students meet during lunch and after school to care for the needs of the community. He is excited to improve the club and invite more students to be part of it.

Crognale said, “Being a bigger school gives us more opportunities to reach out and hopefully share the love of Jesus with the people that we live close to in Elgin and beyond.”

The faculty and staff are excited for the 2026–2027 school year. They are more excited to eventually have several years under their belt with data to prove that their planning and strategizing enabled “every kid to be taught with every skill” before they move higher in education.

“Having a well-rounded exposure is very important because I don’t believe that they need to know exactly what they’re going to do when they leave the walls of the school,” Burke said. “The Lord is helping them search with all their heart what he has in the future. To me, that is a success, and he will guide their path. I do have faith and confidence knowing when they leave here, they are prepared for whatever that might be.”

It will take a year or two for everyone to be acclimated to the new school. Crognale’s students are still a little nervous to leave behind their identities as WCS and HCA students.

“Once we get going, give it a chance,” Crognale tells his students. “I think it’ll be amazing.”

Johnson knows that as more people work together toward unity, their efforts will build their witness and reputation.

“As soon as we can stop feeling like there’s the Harvest group and then the Westminster group
— once it can really feel like River Valley is a new thing without diminishing the history of either school — the witness we could be to the Elgin/St. Charles area,” Johnson said. “These two schools that had a reason to be rivals have put that aside for the sake of something greater.”

Still, they have a ways to go.

“They’re still more comfortable with the people that they’ve known longer, but it’s been really nice to see them growing in comfortability and in friendships with students across campus,” Zange said.

As one community of leaders, teachers, parents and students, they are planting seeds that will foster RVC’s new culture. With challenges and accomplishments in tow, Hoffmeister finds peace knowing that God has a plan and people need only to be obedient to respond.

“I learned that no matter how much I fret, the Lord always has his way,” Hoffmeister said. “I’m just open handed like, ‘Lord, what do you want? What do you want from me? I’ll do whatever you want me to do.’ I don’t know if that’s to clean a toilet or to write.”

It will take years before RVC feels like home. But the community is willing to be patient for what God has in store. As an onlooker, Palmer is excited to see the ministry impact RVC will have as a united family in Christ.

Palmer said, “I am overjoyed and am praying a lot for Carly, the school board and the families that this River Valley Christian will be a beacon of light for the city of Elgin.”

Bella Agnello is a senior Broadcasting, Digital Media and Journalism major with a concentration in Journalism and the On-Campus editor for Cedars. She enjoys antiquing, listening to records and reading classic Russian literature in her spare time.