Lamar School

Truth, Knowledge, Honor

Lamar School was founded over 50 years ago by a group of individuals who wanted to provide a Christian education for their children. Those families met in the basement of a church and established Lamar School. Their curriculum involved a Christian foundation, which was most important to them. They were able to get their accreditation through what was then Mississippi Association of Independent Schools and is now the Midsouth Association of Independent Schools. Today, Lamar School takes pride in having earned a triple accreditation from The Southern Association of Independent Schools, Mississippi Association of Independent Schools, and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Council on Accreditation and School Improvement.

It began as just an elementary school, in a borrowed building, across town from its current location. Later they built their own elementary school building there. Looking ahead at projected growth, the school purchased 40 acres on Lindley Road, and built a high school building for 7th – 12th graders on their new property. So, families were split across town. About 25 years ago, they put everything on the high school campus together. They built an elementary building and cafetorium, and approximately five years ago, added the new gymnasium and more classrooms.

 

 

Lamar offers education for 4-year-old Pre-K through 12th grade, providing a college preparatory education in a Christian environment. There are opportunities for all students to be involved in extracurricular activities, such as grade plays, beginning in elementary. Elementary students even lead devotionals for the entire elementary school. In middle school and high school, they offer athletics. There is also a thriving arts program which presents two performing arts productions each year. There is a robotics team for middle and high school and a high school quiz bowl team. There are many clubs such as Honor Society that are involved in community service.

Having a small school population, around 600, allows the faculty members to really get to know their students. Relationships are as important as the academic lessons they are teaching. As a parent, knowing the school and teacher is supporting their child means a lot. Lamar works with families to raise their children to flourish and works to prepare them for what is next. 

The coaches also get to know the students and encourage them to try a sport or other activity. At Lamar, students don’t have to try out for sports. If they want to participate in a sport, they show up for practice, work hard and get to be a part of the team. They also encourage students to try different things while on campus. There is a place for every student whether it’s the volleyball team or chess club. 95% of the students at Lamar are involved in extracurricular activities, while maintaining a high GPA. 

“The network of our community is so important.  Being a member of the chamber allows our school to network as well. It’s nice to be able to reach out when we are having an event on campus and invite the news media to attend or ask someone for a sponsorship of an event. We invite opportunities to bring the community to our campus. It’s important for students to see that connection between community and school, because our hope is when they graduate, go off and do wonderful things, they will come back, settle in Meridian and raise their family here. It’s very rewarding when I see someone who graduated here, coming back to enroll their child in Pre-K,” says Leigh Ann Ballou, Head of School. “The nicest thing ever is when a graduate goes off to college for a year, comes back and says Lamar School prepared me well.”

Lamar School: educating each individual by providing a challenging and purposeful college preparatory curriculum in a safe, respectful, Christian environment.

Lamar School
544 Lindley Rd., Meridian, MS