Faith West Academy, long a fixture in the Katy community at 2225 Porter Road, plans to close, turning its campus over to local private school Berean Christian Academy, the school has announced on its Facebook page. The closure will take place following the 2025-2026 school year and the school will operate under the name Berean Christian Academy at Faith West.

Faith West Academy, founded in 1982 by Gary Kerr and a group of Christian families who began the initiative in January 1982, is a non-denominational coeducational private school with grades preschool-12 with boarding facilities, according to Wikipedia. With 623 students and an annual budget of over $6 million, it was, circa 2001, one of the ten largest private schools in the greater Houston and Katy area. Former students include U.S. Senator Ted Cruz and Christian music artist Forest Frank.

“Gary Kerr's vision was ‘find a need and fill it’ and [he] believed that there was a need in the Katy area to provide an academically rigorous Christian Education,” said school spokesperson and elementary teacher Melissa Spigener in an email interview with the Katy Times. “The focus has always been to provide a space for Christian education so Berean Christian Academy moving in is still part of that mission.”

“From the beginning, founder Gary Kerr described the vision of Faith West as ‘an experiment in Community,’” Spigener said. “That vision is still very much alive today. On Sunday mornings alone, three different congregations -- South Stone Church, New Church, and Iglesia Bíblica Cristiana -- meet separately on the campus for worship, and now Berean Christian Academy will become another part of this growing community.”

In the early 2000s. Faith West Inc. worked with the Texas Department of Transportation, which needed fill dirt to construct the Pin Oak Road overpass, Spigener said. Faith West provided the dirt from the property, and the excavation ultimately became a four-acre lake, now known as Hidden Lake. Today, The Hidden Lake hosts party events and open swim for the public and serves as a central feature of Camp West, the summer camp founded in 2010. Camp West operates each summer on the Faith West campus and has been recognized as Houston’s Best of the Best summer camps for the past three years, Spigener said.

The decision to close and to turn the campus over to Berean Christian Academy was made in the spring of 2025, said Spigener.

“BCA offers a classical Christian education style, which was always Gary Kerr's vision,” Spigener said. “Due to their increase in enrollment, and the decrease in FWA student enrollment it made sense to offer them the use of the facilities.”

Berean Christian Academy, currently located at 600 Pin Oak Road in Katy, is led by Bethany Elston, head of school, according to Berean’s website.

While Faith West Academy is closing, the broader vision of Faith West Inc. continues. The campus remains a place where churches gather, families bring their children to preschool and camp, and the community comes together, continuing the original vision of “An Experiment in Community.”

“Faith West Inc. will continue operating and serving the community,” Spigener said. “While Faith West Academy is concluding its chapter, Faith West Inc. will still operate Faith West Preschool, Camp West, Hidden Lake, and rentals of the campus facilities.”

The school will host a “final farewell” and “all class reunion” on March 21 at 5 p.m. at the campus at 2225 Porter Road in Katy. The event is open to all former students, alumni, former teachers, and families, who will be able to walk the halls together one final time before the school closes its doors for good, according to a recent post on Facebook. The “final farewell” will feature plenty of activities for kids, including bounce houses, face painting, cotton candy, popcorn, and food trucks. Everyone is welcome.